-/^^. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



19 



^vithout 



or 



anij 



germs, 



atmosphere were true, it might be expected that the 



consid • ^'^^'^ ^^ ^ would always rapidly change; that that in 

 matte ^ would always remain purej and that the fluid in 



The facts, 

 ly prepared 



atm 1 • ^ would^ similarly, undergo no alteration. 



however, are quite the reverse : if a proper 



■^own by Ca 



, ^ ^^ turnip-infusion be employed, the fluid in A will almost 



h reference to 



always remain unchanged; that in B will sometimes 

 rapidly change, and at other times will remain quit 3 

 on, andconcei[pu^e; whilst that in C will almost invariably become 

 r s experiment: turbid in from two to six days. So that even if it were 

 ' all the additi, not the case that some fluids, different from those used 

 ; results of mj; by M. Pasteur, will almost invariably undergo change 

 sealed flasks r in bent-neck vessels, his explanation of the cause of the 



preservation would have been altogether upset by the 

 and divided: fact that some of the very fluids which remain pure In the 



[1 



^^'^I'^iX bent -neck apparatus ivill become foetid If 



ten minutes 



M 



of all air 



J bentf ft"*^^ the flask should prove just as efficacious in pro- 



.^ J r j^gjf tecting the fluid as any process of filtration. And the 



I , a< f^^t that some of the very fluids which are protected as 



) , ^jj long as they are in contact with air devoid of particles, 



. ^ can be made to ferment and swarm with living things 



crerms 



c 



fluid 



^^' through the mere expulsion of this purified air^, is the 

 hermetic^ I Jeath-blow to M. Pasteur's theory, and one of the 



ebulU ^ ' strongest proofs of the occurrence of Archebiosis. 

 if paste^^ ^ The cause of the change in the latter case seems also 





& 



notions 



' throu: 



nctf 



ms 



,f 



* See Appendix C, Exps. vii-ix, xiii-xv, &c. 



' This has been done on several occasions. See Exps. ix and xv, and 



P 



lain 



the 



res 



ylts"' xxxiii and xxxvi. 



C 2 



