m 



374 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE: 



occurrence of fermentation^ so that they often found 

 no organisms when their flasks were opened. But on 

 subjecting other experimental fluids to the same tem- 

 peraturCj though exposing them subsequently to quite 

 different conditions — supposed by myself to be more 

 favourable for the occurrence of fermentative changes 



I do find organisms in the fluids when the flasks are 

 opened. 



It must then never be lost sight of that the negative 

 results of Schwann^ M. Pasteur^ and others^ maybe only 

 applicable to the particular fluids and the particular 

 conditions under which they worked, but the multi- 

 tudes of positive results legitimately obtained by myself 



bearing upon the settlement of the general doctrine. 



F 



As previously stated, M. Pasteur himself for a long 

 time obtained only negative results in repeating the 

 experiments of Schwann. In his earlier investigations 

 he had generally made use of *^l'eau de levure sucree/ 

 of urine, or of some other fluid which was naturally 

 unfitted to undergo fermentative changes of marked 

 intensity, or even to nourish the higher infusorial organ- 



isms 



1 



M 



* Whether the organisms found in a given fluid have been actually 

 produced therein, or have only undergone development in it, we may, 

 for the sake of argument, measure the evolutional capacity of a fluid by 

 the amount and kinds of organisms which are produced in a given 

 quantity of it, in a definite time, ,and at a given temperature. We cer- 

 tainly must not judge of the evolutional qualities of a fluid by its mere 

 tendency to emit a bad odour in a short space of time. A certain fluid 



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