284 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



they soon become turbid, and in a little time a scum is 

 formed upon their surface. The fluids in the flasks of 

 Spallanzani remained of the same appearance and consistency 

 as when they were first introduced into the vessel, and the 

 obvious conclusion was drawn that microscopic life is not 

 spontaneously formed within nutrient fluids. 



"But Needham was not satisfied with these results, and 

 with a show of reason maintained that such a prolonged 

 boiling would destroy not only germs, but the germinative, 

 or, as he caUed it, the 'vegetative force' of the infusion 

 itself. Spallanzani easily disposed of this objection by sho^^•- 

 ing that when the infusions were again exposed to the air, 

 no matter how severe or prolonged the boiling to which they 

 had been subjected, the infusoria reappeared. His experi- 

 ments were made in great numbers, with difl"erent infusions, 

 and were conducted with the utmost care and precision" 

 (Dunster). It must be confessed, however, that the success 

 of his experiments was owing largely to the purity of the air 

 in which he worked, the more resistant atmospheric germs 

 wxre not present: as Wyman showed, long afterward, that 

 germs may retain their vitality after being subjected for 

 several hours to the temperature of boiling water. 



Schulze and Schwann. — The results of Spallanzani's ex- 

 periments were published in 1775, and were generally re- 

 garded by the naturalists of that period as answering in the 

 negative the question of the spontaneous generation of life. 

 Doubts began to arise as to the conclusive nature of Spal- 

 lanzani's experiments, on account of the discoveiy of the part 

 which oxygen plays in reference to life. The discover}^ of 

 oxygen, one of the greatest scientific events of the eighteenth 

 centur}^, was made by Priestley in 1774. It was soon shown 

 that oxygen is necessary to all forms of life, and the question 

 was raised : Had not the boiling of the closed flasks changed 

 the oxygen so that through the heating process it had lost its 



