478 
NATURE 
while the stimulation ofthe posterior tubercles leads to the pro- 
duction of all kinds of noises. By stimulating the cerebellum 
varios movements of the eye-balls are produced. 
-In the discussion which ensued Dr. Geo. Harley alluded to 
the effect of mental emotion on the bodily functions, and the 
possibility of producing disease by simply acting on the nervous 
system. Referring to phrenology, he said it was one thing to 
localise function in the interior of the brain, and quite another 
to specify functions by manipulating the external cranium ; and 
he quoted a saying of Flourens with reference to phrenology : 
“Les hommes qui Ja pratiquent sont des charlatans, et les 
hommes qui la croient sont des imbeciles.” 
Dr. Carpenter remarked that the great work of the brain is 
done in the cortical substance, and in Dr. Ferrier’s experiments 
the first effect of the stimulus is upon that particular substance, 
producing an intensification of the circulation through it; being 
in that respect different from the ordinary stimulation of a nerve 
which acts upon the fibrous substance of the medullary matter of 
the brain. He had long since expressed his disbelief in phreno- 
logy, which maintained that the animal functions were placed at 
the back of the head, and the intellectual at the front. Dr, 
Ferrier’s experiments tended to show that the real seat of 
the intellectual functions was in the posterior part of the 
rain, 
Dr. Brunton, however, alluded to the faculty of will and of 
self-restraint as distinguishing man from the lower animals, and 
said that this was probably situated in the anferior part of the 
brain. It was noticeable that criminals, who were deficient in 
that faculty, possessed only a small portion of brain in front of 
the head. 
Prof. Burdon Sanderson said that the stimulus in Dr. Ferrier’s 
experiments was, contrary to Dr. Carpenter’s supposition, exactly 
like the ordinary excitation of a nerve, and that the effect was 
produced in an extremely short space of time. 
Note on Huisinga’s Experiments on Abiogenesis, by Dr. Burdon- 
Sanderson, 
Under the title of a “ Contribution to the Question of 
Abiogenesis,” Prof. Huizinga has very recently published 
(Pfliiger’s Archiv. vol. vii. p. 549) a series of experiments which 
deserve notice as constituting a new and carefully worked out 
attempt to support the doctrine of spontaneous generation. 
Prof. Huizinga begins his paper with the words J/uéta venas- 
¢entur que jam cecidere, using them as an expression of the recur- 
ring nature of this question. He then proceeds to say that he was 
induced to undertake his inquiry by the publication of the well- 
known work of Dr, Bastian (whom he compliments as having 
awakened the exhausted interest of physiologists in the subject), 
his special object being to repeat the much-discussed turnip- 
cheese experiment. 
Everyone knows what Dr. Bastian’s observation is. It is 
simply this, viz. that if a glass flask is charged with a slightly 
alkaline infusion of turnip of sp. g. 1015, to which a trace of 
cheese has been added, and is then subjected to ebullition for ten 
minutes and closed hermetically while boiling, and finally kept 
at fermentation temperature, Bacteria develop in it in the course 
of a few days, This experiment has been repeated by Huizinga 
with great care, and the accuracy of Dr. Bastian’s statement of 
fact confirmed by him in every particular ; yet notwithstanding 
this he thinks the evidenee afforded by these results in support 
of the doctrine so inadequate, that he, desiring to find such 
evidence, has thought it necessary to repeat the experiment 
under what he regards as conditions of greater exactitude. 
Huizinga’s objections to Bastian’s experiment are two. First, 
that when a flask is boiled and closed hermetically in ebullition, 
its contents are almost entirely deprived of air, and (2) that cheese 
is a substance of mixed and uncertain composition. To obviate 
the first of these objections, he closes his flasks, after ten minutes 
boiling, not by hermetically sealing them, but by placing over 
the mouth of each, while in ebullition, a porous porcelain plate 
which has just been removed from the flame of a Bunsen’s lamp. 
The hot porcelain plate is made to adhere to the edge or lip of 
the flask by a layer of asphalt with which the edge has been 
previously covered. The purpose of this arrangement is to 
allow air to enter the flask, at the same time that all germinal 
matter is excluded. It is not necessary to discuss whether this 
is so or not. 
To obviate the secord objection he alters the composition of 
the liquid used: he substitutes for cheese, peptone, and for 
turnip infusion, a solution containing in a litre of distilled 
water ;— 
Grapesugar .. , 
+ ie vs « « ® 25 grammes 
Potassium nitrate, 7.,7. sewn ure <4 
Magnesium sulphate. . . . . .. 2 
Calcium phosphate. . =)... 40% 
The phosphate is prepared by precipitating a solution of cal- 
cium chloride with ordinary sodiuth phosphate, taking care that 
the chloride is in excess. The precipitate of neutral phosphate 
so obtained is washed and then added to the saline solution in 
the proportion given. On boiling it is converted into soluble 
acid phosphate, and insoluble basic salt, of which the latter is 
removed by infiltration. Consequently the proportion of phos- 
phate in solution is less than that above indicated, 
To the filtrate, peptone is added in the proportion of o°4 per 
cent. 
The peptone is obtained by digesting egg-albumen at the tem- 
perature of the body in artificial gastric juice made by adding 
the proper quantity of glycerin extract of pepsin to water acidu- 
lated with hydrochloric acid. The liquid so obtained is first 
rendered alkaline by the addition of liquor sode, then’slightly 
acidulated with acetic acid and boiled. The syntonin thus 
precipitated is separated by infiltration from the clear jliquid, ~ 
which is then evaporated to a syrup and poured in a thin stream 
into strong alcohol, with constant agitation. The precipitated 
peptone is separated after some hours and washed with alcohol, 
and redissolved in a small quantity of water. The solution is 
again precipitated by pouring it into alcohol in the same way as 
before, and the precipitate washed and dried. : 
Flasks having been half filled with the liquid thus prepared 
(in 1,000, 2 each of nitre and Epsom salts, a trace of phosphate 
of lime, 25 parts of grape sugar, and 4 parts of peptone), each is 
boiled for ten minutes, closed while boiling, with the earthenware 
plate as above described, and placed as soon as it is cool in the 
warm chamber at 30°C. The experiment so made ‘‘gave, without 
any exception, a positive result in every case. After two or 
three days the fluid was crowded with actively moving Bacterium 
termo.” 
The readers of NATURE are aware that in June last I published 
a repetition of Dr. Bastian’s experiments with a variation not of 
the liquid but of the mode of heating (see NATURE; vol. viil., p. 
141). Instead of boiling the flasks for ten minutesjover the 
open flame and closing them in ebullition, I boiled them, closed 
them hermetically, and then placed them in a digester in which 
they were subjected to ebullition under a pressure of two inches 
or more of mercury. The result was negative. There was no 
development of Bacteria. 
Since the publication of my experiments Huizinga’s have 
appeared. His result, regarded as a proof of spontaneous genera- 
tion is clearly not superior to Bastian’s. The substitution of a 
soluble immediate principle for an insoluble mixed product like 
cheese, and the use of a definite solution of sugar and salts 
are not material improvements. The question is not whether 
the germinal matter of Bacteria is present, but whether it is 
destroyed by the process of heating. Consequently what is 
necessary is not to alter the liquid but to make the conditions of 
the experiment as regards temperature as exact as possible. In ~ 
this respect Huizinga’s experiment is a confirmation of Bastian’s 
and nothing more. 
I have recently repeated it with the same modifications as 
regards temperature as those employed in my repetition of the 
turnip-cheese experiments. The result has been the same. In 
all other respects I have [followed the method described by him 
in his paper. 
I have prepared the solution of salts, grape sugar, and bra 
objection 
in exact accordance with his directions, To obviate his 
as to the absence of air, I have introduced the liquid, not into 
flasks, but into strong glass tubes closed hermetically at each end 
and only half filled with liquid, the remainder of the tube con« 
taining air at the ordinary tension. Each of these tubes, after 
having been subjected to the temperature of ebullition under two” 
inches of mercury for half an hour, has been kept since Septem- 
ber 10 at the temperature of fermentation (32° C.), Up to 
the present time, no change whatever has taken place in the 
liquid. bah 
ths acontrol experiment I opened one of the tubes immediately 
after boiling, and introduced a drop of distilled water. It became 
opalescent in twenty-four hours. : 
In conclusion let me observe that I still maintain my resolution ~ 
to take no side whatever in this controversy. I do not hold 
that spontaneous generation is impossible. I do not regard 
heterogenists as scientific heretics. All I say is, that up_to the 
