r, Tin: TIII.oUY OF >1ONTANEOUS GENERATION 



may be considered that they were unduly diilident, since the action of the 



mething must rily IK- a solid body 



i. both investigators could point to experi- 



. lotisly tailed test liquid afterwards underwent decom- 



liding the fact that all the air which was allowed access to it 



L-WOol. Milk they had, in their first ti.-ati.M-, 



recognised a> such a liquid, and to this wore added, in a second communication 



by 8ciiKoDKIl (1.), yolk . broth, in all of which cases the 



This led Schroder to separate the pheno- 



ion characterised as fermentation and putrefaction into 



\\hich he <i. voluntary decomposition,' requiring 



n for it- inception, whilst the other, *.(/. the fermentation of wort. 



required, in addition, the coilahoration of that unknown constituent of the air, 



\\liich con! loved by lire 01 ain-ted by a cotton-wool filter. '" Whether 



ild In- regarded as germs floating in the air, or BC 



to unknown clteinical substance modified by high temperature and sepa- 

 : by tin- influence of contact with the cotton fibres, must remain 

 ;di-d." 



_: back for a moment at the work of Schult/.e, one would be only too 



readily disposed to consider the results of Schroder and Jhisch's experiment as a. 



retrogade step, since th< ly did not all'ord us any further information 



beyond that established by Schult/e as to the nature of the p-rins in the air, but 



aU> railed in <juestion the accuracy of Schultze's results. And. in fact, repeti- 



nulUe experiment l>y many other workers, with various modiii- 



Uy with regard to the kind of test H(piid employed, continued the 



;i. In numerous instances decomposition ensued, 



even in the boiled liquid, when purilied air (filtered or heated to redness) alone 



imiited: whilst in other cases, under precisely similar conditions, the 



-ample remained unaltered for any length of time. Thus the state of the 



:on at the comm nceuient of the sixth decade was just about as far 



advanced beginning of the century, and the adherents of the spon- 



*ion theory weie more certain of triumph than ever. 



7. The Examination of this Theory by Pasteur. 



However, tl refutation was close at hand, though the proof was 



d by the methods which had general! v been favoured hitherto, but 

 u had led to no definite isMie. 



n had so concentrated their attention on keeping the air 



admitted to the boiled liquid perfectly free from active irerms, that it had not 



d to any one to a>k if the sterilisation of the liquid could not be equally 



.ply boiling it, either moment. irily or continuously for a short 



time. 



that all known iorm> of created life (animal as 



well a* vegetable) were incapable ing the temperature of boiling water. 



\en \\lien exposed tln-n-to tor merely a shoit time, the conclusion was arrived 



mall :_"! ms in question. 1 1 was 



dered. humanly spe.il 'ain that every liquid could be 



free h<>m active x-rms by Imiling fora short time. This was agreed 



bO rejected the doctrine of .spoil- 



ill such belief was ba-ed 01 itnptioli. U < 'll. 



. implied when he inserted the 



ni hi- \\oi e theoiN >is generation: 



:.im;ils or eggs capable of supporting a 



