225 
NAT ORS 
[ Fuly 14, 1870 
previously admitted facts on insufficient evidence, whilst the 
reasonings of the evolutionist would have been in every way 
legitimate. And yet M. Pasteur left his readers to imagine that 
the explanation which he had adduced was that which was alone 
admissible ; he did not refer to the existence of any other mode 
of explanation, but at once attempted to set aside the old rule. 
And similarly, when he ascertained that such alkaline or neutral 
fluids were no longer found to contain organisms if they had 
been previously submitted to a temperature of 110° C. he was 
entitled to draw no conclusion from such facts. Nevertheless, 
M. Pasteur did assume that such indirect evidence entitled him 
to come to the conclusion that the hypothetical ‘‘ germs” con- 
tained in these solutions—those which were not killed, as he sup- 
posed by a temperature of 100° C, were destroyed by a 
temperature of 110° C. Such two-faced evidence is, how- 
ever, worthless for raising the standard of vital resistance ; 
and to ignore the possible differences which may exist, from the 
evolutionist’s point of view, between acid and alkaline solutions, 
as M. Pasteur did, is about as reasonable as if he had imagined 
that because water does not boil at the temperature of 100° F. 
the same rule must necessarily hold good for ether. 
Much evidence, indeed, can be brought forward to show that 
even at ordinary temperatures, and under conditions in which 
there is a moderately free exposure to the air (and, therefore, 
with every facility for the entrance of ‘‘ germs”), a neutral or 
slightly alkaline solutiontis not only found to contain organisms 
more quickly, but these are found to exist therein in much greater 
variety than in solutions in other respects similar, save for the 
fact of their being slightly acid rather than alkaline or neutral. 
Any of the higher forms of ciliated Infusoria say appear in 
different neutral or slightly alkaline solutions, though they never 
present themselyes in those having an acid reaction, and wether are 
their undeveloped ova or their dead bodies to be found therein. The 
amount of difference capable of being produced by the mere acidity 
of a solution was well seen by me a few months ago. Having 
prepared * a mixture of white sugar and tartrate of ammonia, 
with small quantities of phosphate of ammonia and phosphate of 
soda in distilled water, whose reaction was found to be neutral, 
two similar wide-mouthed bottles of about three ounces capa- 
city were filled with the fluid. Both were kept side by side in 
a tolerably warm place, the mouths of the bottles being merely 
covered in each case by apiece of glass, after glycerine had been 
smeared over the rim on which the coverrested. Although not 
hermetically sealed, these solutions were thus sufficiently pro- 
tected to prevent the access of much dust from the neighbouring 
fire. The fluid inthe one bottle was allowed to remain neutral, 
whilst to that of the other four or five drops of acetic acid were 
added, so as to make it yield a faintly acid reaction to test paper. 
The results were quite different in the two cases. Towards the 
end of the fourth day the originally unaltered neutral solution 
began to assume a cloudy appearance ; this increased in amount 
during the next day, and at the close of the sixth day a thin 
pellicle was found on the surface, and beneath it there were 
some irregular, flocculent, whitish masses buoyed up by small 
air bubbles. Examined microscopically, the pellicles and also the 
flocculent masses beneath were found to be made up of medium-sized 
monads and bacteria, mixed with crystals of triple phosphate. 
There were also many scattered cells of a Zoru/a, varying from 
sdov tO qotun’ in diameter. By this time (close of the sixth 
day), however, the companion solution which had been slightly 
acidified, had undergone scarcely any appreciable change. It 
was still quite clear and transparent, and there was no pellicle 
on the surface, though there was a very slight whitish flocculent 
stratum at the bottom of the bottle. Even on the twenty-first 
day this solution continued in much the same condition—still 
showing no trace of a pellicle. The fluid itself was clear, and 
there had been only a very slight increase in the thickness of the 
white flocculent layer at the bottom of the bottle, which, on 
microscopical examination, was found to be made up mainly of 
a granular matter having no definite character—though mixed 
with this there were a small number of minute but well-formed 
bacteria. This acid solution had remained throughout in the 
same warm place, but the bottle containing the neutral fluid 
had not (after the examination on the sixth day) been replaced 
in its original place near the fire; it had continued since this 
time ina part of the room altogether away from the fire, and 
yet when this also was examined on the twenty-first day, it was 
* Dec. 23, 1869. The weather being very cold and frosty. The mixture 
employed was another portion of the same solution as was used in E.xfe77- 
ment 9. 
found to present a very cloudy, whitish appearance throughout, 
there was a thick flocculent stratum at the bottom, and also a 
very consistent, well-marked pellicle on the surface of the fluid, 
made up almost entirely of large and well-formed ZoruZa cells. 
Although the results here detailed, as occurring in the neutral 
and the acidified solutions respectively, are so strikingly different, 
still they are by no means singular or peculiar to the particular 
kind of solution which was employed in this experiment. 
Phenomena essentially similar in kind may be observed when 
almost any neutral or slightly alkaline organic infusion is em- 
ployed. Thus, to quote one only out of many experiments bearing 
upon this point. A short time ago, having prepared a pretty 
strong infusion of mutton, about an ounce and a half was put, after 
filtration, into each of two similar flasks. The one portion of 
the infusion was allowed to remain neutral, whilst to the other 
were added three drops of strong acetic acid, so as to make the 
whole yield a faintly acid reaction to test paper. The two flasks 
were then exposed side by side to a temperature of 75° to $0° F. 
during the day. In twenty-four hours time the neutral solution 
was clouded and more or less opaque, whilst the portion which 
was acid appeared perfectly unchanged. It was as clear as 
ever; and so it continued even to the end of forty-eight hours, 
although by this time the neutral solution was quite opaque, 
muddy-looking, with a pellicle on its surface, and also some 
flocculent deposit at the bottom of the flask. A microscopical 
examination of two or three drops of this fluid showed that it was 
teeming with most actively moving monads, bacteria, and vibrios, 
whilst a similar examination of the acid fluid showed not a trace 
of these or of any other kinds of organisms.* 
The difference between the results in these two sets of cases was 
thus extremely well marked, and the results themselves are well 
worth our serious attention. We had to do with equal bulks of 
fluid, placed under similar conditions and similarly constituted, 
with the exception that in each set a few drops of acid had been 
added to the one fluid, whilst the other was allowed to remain 
neutral, And it must be confessed that the difference encountered 
was very similar in kind to that which was observed by M. 
Pasteur when he made use of acid, or of neutral or alkaline 
solutions respectively, in repeating the experiments of Schwann. 
Only here we have had nothing to do with the destructive agency 
of heat, and germs were as free to enter into the one solution 
as they were into the other, so that the differences actually 
observed would seem now, at all events, due simply to the dif- 
ferent qualities of the fluids themselves. Of course, such results 
cannot be adduced as evidence that the evolutional property of 
the neutral solution was higher than that of the acid solution, 
It may be not a case of evolution at all, but simply one of 
growth and development, The results, however, do show 
plainly enough that the neutral solution was the one most 
favourable to the growth and development of Living things. 
And if, starting from this fact, which cannot be denied, 
the evolutionists see reasons which induce them to assume 
the possibility that, in addition to mere growth and deve- 
lopment, an actual origination of Living things may have 
taken place de nove, they would also be likely to suppose 
that the neutral fluid was more favourable to such evolu- 
tion than that which had been acidified.t That solution 
which was found favourable for the processes of growth and de- 
velopment would also, in all probability, be favourable for evolu- 
tion. A process would be most likely to be zytiatea where the 
conditions were suitable for its continuance. And surely the 
same factors would be at work in the initiation of a Living thing 
as would be called into play during its contiuance as a growing 
Living thing. The presumption, therefore, is a fair one, that solu- 
tions which are favourable to the growth and development of cer- 
tain organisms would also be favourable to the evolutional changes 
which more especially lead to the initiation of such Living things. 
Seeing, then, that the question of the occurrence or non-occur- 
rence of such initiations is the very matter in dispute, it is cer- 
tainly most imperative that no one engaged in investigations 
bearing on thesubject should fail to appreciate this that these are 
possibilities whose probability ought to be assumed as equal. We 
may well be amazed, then, at the utter one-sidedness of M. 
* The reverse results, which may be produced by neutralising the acidity 
of a naturally acid fluid, will be exemplified further on. 
+ Taking it only for what it is worth, itis, at least, deserving of mention that 
no reason seems assignable for the presence of 7orx/@ in the one saline solu- 
tion and not in the other. They were both equally exposed to the advent of 
“germs.” It can scarcely be imagined that the Zora germs did obtain 
access to the both solutions, but that they perished in that which was faintly 
acid, for, as a matter of fact, Zoru/e are much more frequently met with in 
acid solutions than in those which are alkaline. 
