_ 200 
NATURE 
[Fuly 10, 1873 
letter. My reasons were these. Dr. Sanderson’s experiments in 
the eight successive cases in which he empluyed the temperature 
of 100° C, for twenty minu'es were entirely confirmatory of my 
own, and were, moreover, so conducted as to refute the objec- 
tions which have been urged by Dr. Wm. Roberts and others. 
As to the bearing of Dr. Sanderson’s experiments with higher 
temperatures and more prolonged periods of exposure to heat 
upon the general question of the independent origin of living 
matter, I wholly dissent from his now expressed conclusions, for 
the following reasons :— 
In the first place his fluids were not kept sufficiently long 
before they were submitted to microscopical examination. Dr, 
Sanderson is quite mistaken in supposing that in examining his 
liquids within 3-6 days after their preparation he was following 
my method—more especially in cases such as these where the 
fluids have been exposed to temperatures higher than usual, or 
to 100° C, for upwards of twenty minutes. Three to six 
weeks have often elapsed before I thought it judicious to open 
my flasks (See ‘‘ Beginnings of Life,” vol. i. p. 355, p. 441, 
and Append. C.). In opening all his flasks at the end of 3-6 
days, Dr. Sanderson lost the opportunity of watching the 
changes which might have ensued later in many of his experi- 
mental fluids—and hence lost his right to draw any conclusions 
from these abortive trials. 
Secondly these experiments are open to another objection. 
Dr. Sanderson concludes from them that exposure to a tempera- 
ture of ror® C. almost always arrests the tendency to fermenta- 
tion in his experimental fluids. This conclusion I believe to be 
erroneous, because in the former series of experiments which I 
performed in his presence, and of which he recorded the results 
-in your pages (NATURE, vol. vii. p. 180), fermentation oc- 
curred in the majority of cases in fluids which I have very good 
reasons for believing to have been raised to a temperature of 
10333 C.* The method recently employed by Dr. Sanderson 
for superheating his flasks was needlessly complicated, and the 
exact temperature to which they had been exposed was known 
only by inference—never by direct thermometric observation. 
Leaving now the discussion of the experimental facts I come 
to the examination of Dr. Sanderson’s inferences, which seem 
still more open to objection. 
Dr. Sanderson, in common with most others, had up to the 
date of his witnessing my experiments, admitted that Bacteria 
and their germs were killed in all fluids with which he had 
experimented at the temperature of 100° C, (see ‘‘ Thirteenth 
Report of Medical Officer of Privy Council, 1871.”) It was, 
indeed, this conviction which inspired himself, and many others, 
with a strong disbelief in the results which I obtained with 
previously boiled infusions. 
What remains, then, for Dr. Sanderson to do, prior to drawing 
inferences such as he now expresses, is to ascertain, by direct 
examination, whether the temperature of 100° C. is or is not 
fatal to the life of Bacteria. It is upon this that the inter- 
pretation of my results can alone depend. I have already 
contributed my share to the inquiry by several long series of 
experiments, each of which has led me to the same conclusion, 
viz., that Bacteria and their germs, when in the moist state, are 
killed at a temperature of 60°C. (See “ Beginnings of Life,” 
vol. i, p. 325-3333 ‘‘ Proceedings of Royal Society,” No. 143, 
1873 ; and another paper about to appear in the next number of 
the “ Proceedings.”) It is for Dr. Sanderson, or any com- 
petent observers who are sufficiently interested, to examine my 
experiments and results on this part of the subject, or else to 
devise others for themselves having a similar bearing. 
If I am right in believing that 60°C. is the thermal death- 
point o' Bacteria in the moist state, the conclusion which must be 
drawn from the now admitted results occurring in fluids which 
* Dr. Sanderson was not aware of this fact, and says he does not know 
any means by which the temperature of a fluid boiling briskly in a vessel 
from which the steam escapes only through a capillary orifice, could be accu- 
rately estimated. ‘he method which | adopted some mouths ago seems to 
possess this merit. I had a small maximum thermometer made for the pur- 
pose, 24 in. in length, and graduated from 95°-115° C. Having straightened 
tue neck of one of my retorts (capable of holding about two fluid ounces), it 
was filled with some hay infusion and the thermometer was introduced in 
such a way that its bulb remained in the ,midst of the fluid, about three 
quarters of an inch away from the glass. The long neck of the retort having 
then been drawn out and b. oken off (so as to leave the usual capiilary orifice) 
the fluid was boiled tor five minutes before the vessel was sealed. The ther- 
mometer was found to stand at 103°33”7C The retorts employed in my 
previous experiments with Dr. Sanderson were of the same size, and their 
contained fluids were boiled under precisely similar conditions. If larger 
flasks, con aining more fluid, were employed the temperature weuld dou vt- 
less rise to a still higher degree owing to a corresponding increase in internal 
pressure. 
have been heated to 100°C. suffice for my argument as to the 
reality of Archebiosis. The further investigation of the results 
of raising fluids to higher temperatures for protracted periods is 
of great interest, but does not at all affect the question of the 
reality of Archebiosis ; ani Dr. Sanderson’s preseat experiments 
have, therefore, none of the significance in the arzumeat which 
he strangely enough appears to claim for them. 
Briefly, having admitted that B&cteria arise in fluids which 
have been submitted to a temperature of 109°C., it is for Dr, 
Sanderson to show that they are not killed in fluids at 60° C., as 
I maintain that they are, before he can attempt with any effect 
to draw inferences of his own, or to criticise those which I have 
drawn on the subject of the independent origin of living matter. 
H. CHARLTON BASTIAN 
University College, July 7 
Dr. Bastian’s Experiments 
REGARDING Dr. Bastian’s letter in NaTuRE of June 26, 
I am happy to be able to make a note of an experiment which 
is of interest and importance. I sealed a tube on toa flask of 
about 100 cc. capacity at right angles to the neck, and drew 
out the end so as to forma capillary orifice. About 30 cc. of 
water were put into the flask, anda thermometer in an india- 
rubber cork was wired into the neck. On boiling the water 
the steam had not issued during more than half-a-minate, before 
the temperature was 102° C., and in less than ten minutes it had 
reached 118° C, ; fearing the safety of the apparatus, I did not 
proceed further, nor indeed did I wish to do more. The joint ~ 
experiments of Drs. Sanderson and Bastian, then newly pub- 
lished in your paper, led me to this. My view being that 
Pasteur’s experiments on milk, mixed with carbonate of lime, 
and the liquid known as ‘‘ Pasteur’s solution” mixed with 
carbonate of lime, conclusively show that liquids which ordina- 
rily develop Bacteria, will, if they remain neutral after boiling 
at 100° C. also develop these organisms: raise the temperature 
to 110° C. and the Bacteria no longer show themselves. 
Thus believing, I concluded that the absence of Bacteria in 
some of Drs. Sanderson and Bastian’s flasks in which were 
placed neutral or only slightly alkaline infusions, was probably 
due to the liquids being heated above 100°C., by boiling in 
vessels with capillary orifices. That my supposition was correct 
is more than likely ; in fact experiments with infusions con- 
firmed it, That an aqueous solution may so easily be raised to 
118° C. is a point in chemical manipulation which will be 
turned to advantage in the laboratory. 
King’s College, June 30 WALTER NO&L HARTLEY 
Temperature and Pressure 
THE climate of the island of Jamaica is remarkably uniform, 
not only at the sea-level, but also at places having the same ele- 
vation, so that the connection between temperature and eleya- 
tion, or barometrical pressure due to that elevation, is easily ob- 
tained ; and since the surface of the island is broken up by in- 
numerable radiating and intersecting mountain ranges, among or 
upon which the houses are scattered, this connection becomes 
one of the most important features in its meteorology; but 
what renders it especially interesting, however, is the fact that 
the rate of the decrease of temperature in ascending the hills in 
this tropical climate is equal to the average rate of decrease 
found by balloon ascents made in England, as far as the irregu- 
larities of the results obtained from those ascents will allow us to 
judge. 
: ie order to show that this is the case, let ¢, be the temperature 
at any place where the pressure is #,, the temperature being ex- 
pressed in degrees of Fahrenheit’s scale, and the pressure in 
inches of mercury at 32°; let ¢ and f be the corresponding 
quantities at any other place above the former ; then if A be con- 
stant and equal to 3°°23, the equation 
t,—t=A(0,-P) 
will represent the connection between temperature and pressure ; 
or in words, for every inch the barometer may fall, the thermo- 
meter will fall 3°°23. , 
If we take mean annual values, at Kingston 4, =78°8, Zo= 
29'97in. ; and at Newcastle, the garrison of the white troops, ¢= 
67°'0, P=26'31in. ; so that A (#,—f)=11° 8, which is exactly 
equal to the observed difference of temperature. , 
Again at Craigton, the residence of his Excellency th 
