THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 275 



ment under the microscope, into any fungus or variety 

 of Infusorial animalcule. Obviously., this is the only 

 kind of evidence which is strictly admissible and yet 

 such evidence M.Pasteur has not attempted to adduce 1 . 

 The evidence by which he has attempted to prove 

 that the c corpuscles' are really germs., is of by no 

 means so satisfactory a nature, or so free from chances 

 of misconception as could be desired 2 . Bearing in 

 mind, therefore, that the so-called c germs ' of Pasteur 

 have not been proved to be such, we feel bound to say 

 that experiments have done very little indeed, even in 

 the hands of so skilled an operator, to raise the pan- 

 spermic doctrine out of the region of mere hypothesis. 

 We have seen, in fact, that M. Pasteur himself now 

 holds the doctrine only in an extremely modified form. 

 And yet his researches are constantly referred to in 

 such terms as to lead others to believe that they had 

 definitely established the truth of the c panspermic' 

 hypothesis. 



M. Pouchet has also examined the air of the most 

 varied localities with the greatest care by several dif- 



1 In a note appended (p. 34) to this part of his Memoir, M. Pasteur 

 says, ' Ce qu'il y aurait de mieux a faire et de plus direct consisterait 

 a suivre au microscope le d^veloppement de ces germes. Tel etait mon 

 projet ; mais 1'appareil que j'avais fait construire pour cet objet ne 

 m'ayant pas ete livre" en temps opportun, j'ai ete eloigne de cette etude 

 par d'autres travaux.' 



3 Nevertheless, M. Pasteur does actually claim to have proved the 

 correctness of his supposition. (Seep. 17.) 



T 2, 



