Atig. 8, 1872] 



NATURE 



287 



absence of Bacteria and other low organisms in infusions 

 often bears little or no relation to the facilities for the 

 admission of germs from the atmosphere, but seems to 

 depend on a variety of special conditions only to be 

 learnt by long practice. The temperature at which the 

 infusion was made, its quantity, the presence of dense or 

 rarefied air in the flask, a few degrees more or less of 

 temperature of the room where the flasks are kept, and a 

 variety of other circumstances, so affect the results, that 

 in some cases organisms refuse to appear when there is 

 every facility for the hypothetical germs to gain admis- 

 sion ; while, as we have seen, they arc often plentifully 



produced when every possible precaution is taken to keep 

 them out and to destroy them. The only way of escap- 

 ing from the results of such a series of experiments as 

 that here recorded is by asserting that, although the 

 organisms which are produced in the flasks are killed by 

 a temperature much Ijelow that to which the flasks have 

 been subjected, the gcn/is from which they have been 

 produced are not so killed. We are asked, therefore, to 

 accept as facts three pure suppositions : first, that such 

 e.Kcessively minute and simple organisms as Bacteria, 

 whose only mode of multiplication is by fission or gemma- 

 tion, have germs which possess different physical proper- 



4.— Flngus foun 



Solution of Am.mowc Tartkate and Sodic Phgsihate ( x 600). 



ties from themselves ; secondly, that these germs, as well 

 as many others, are omnipresent in the atmosphere ; and, 

 thirdly, that they are not injured by an exposure for four 

 hours to vapour heated to over 300° F. ; and, finally, we 

 arc to accept all these suppositions as facts in order to 

 avoid admitting that specks of living protoplasm are 

 originated (/(■ /loiio in some fluids just as specks of crystal- 

 line matter originate in other fluids, and although some 

 organisms can be seen to make their appearance in fluids 

 independently of all pre-existing visible germs, just as 

 crystals do. 



It must, we think, be admitted that in the portion of 

 his work we have now been considering. Dr. Bastian has 

 fairly met and fully answered all the objections that were 

 made to his earlier experiments. He has, moreover, 

 shown the fallacy of many of the arguments of M. Pas- 

 teur and his supporters ; and, by a series of careful and 

 well-devised experiments, the results of which agree with 

 those arrived at by a large number of other workers both 

 in this country and on the Continent, has proved the (/t' 

 ;/i^7'0 origin of various living organisms in air-tight flasks. 

 This alone is a great step gained ; but it is, as we propose 

 to show in our next article, only the stepping-stone to 

 more important observations and more startling facts. 



VR. LIVINGSTONE 



THE despatches and private correspondence of Dr. 

 Livingstone, after a long detention, have at last been 

 delivered, and we are now able to give extracts from the 

 explorer's reports which throw further light on his dis- 

 coveries. He appears to have ascertained, by a journey 

 round the south-eastern side of Tanganyika, that that 

 lake ha? no outlet. Me has also explored the drainige t:) 

 the eastward for nearly 600 miles. We learn alsp that his 

 present object is to examine the hills to the south-west of 

 Lake Bangweolo, where he had been told that there are 



four fountains, which he confusedly connects with the 

 sources of the Nile, as described by Herodotus. There is 

 marvellous heroism in this persistency, and it is sad to 

 reflect that the grand old traveller is doomed to disap- 

 pointment. But there can scarcely be any doubt that 

 these rivers to the eastward of Tanganyika have no con- 

 nection with the Nile. Apart from other considerations, 

 Livingstone's own observations show that his Lualaba, 

 where he saw it, was only at the same height above the 

 sea as Gondokoro, and the error of his instrument would 

 increase rather than diminish the height. This makes it 

 impossible that his discoveries can be connected with the 

 Nile. Doubtless the mass of waters is lost in some inland 

 swamp. 



The measures for Dr. Livingstone's relief were condu :ted 

 with zeal and good faith, and he is now well supplied from 

 stores sent up by Dr. Kirk and by his son. 1NL-. Stanley 

 has also done excellent service in pushing on to Ujiji, in 

 accompanying Livingstone to Unyanyembe, and in bring- 

 ing home the letters and despatches. The President of 

 the Geographical Society, in the name of the council, has 

 promptly and cordially acknowledged this service, and 

 the perseverance and energy with which it has been per- 

 formed, in a letter addressed to Mr. Stanley as soon as 

 the despatches were received. There was no delay or 

 hesitation in giving him the credit that was his due ; and 

 equal promptitude has been shown by the Secretary of 

 State for Foreign Affairs, whose letter has already been 

 published. But the American correspondent's subsequent 

 conduct, though doubtless agreeable to his employers, de- 

 serves no thanks from the countrymen of Livingstone. 

 The ungenerous attack upon Dr. Kirk is sufficiently re- 

 futed by the evidence of Dr. Livingstone's own son, whose 

 letters will, we trust, dispell the delusions with which his 

 father's mind had been filled. Even now we can scarcely 

 believe that Mr. Stanley is justified in his assertion that 

 Dr. Livingstone, the great enemy of slavery, commissioned 

 him to send up sets of slave chains to be used by Her 



