^//^^. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



17 



^^^"^-^tion obt 



steur 



ait; 



niade 



and of 



urine. 



^vmg been 



had been admitted to the boiled fluids, the different 

 results seemed to show that fermentation or non- 

 fermentation^ in such cases^ depends wholly upon the 

 quality of the fluids employed. 



Other evidence which is so much vaunted by M. 

 Pasteur and his supporters^ as to the possibility of 



the 



t> ot tern; inducing fertility in previously sterile flasks 



ouchet. in co 



addition of a portion of asbestos^ containing the solid 



egree of fern 



iting these eij particles filtered from the atmosphere ^^ is also equally 

 t they took st valueless for confirming the proposition that fermenta- 

 t has almost 1; tion is only capable of being initiated by living fer- 

 ments. The same asbestos which may contain living 

 ter a time^ yif' germs or organisms, does undoubtedly contain many de- 

 elevation tk composable particles and fragments of organic matter 2. 

 idence tends [The previously barren solution may therefore be ren- 

 Pastcur. As dered fertile by the mere addition of those portions 

 each set Oi ^^ unstable organic matter, whose molecular mobility 



1 j1 111* *11 if /^ 1 t 



yed by 



1 



in 



ro 



the 



Aj[j SO that they are still capable of initiating 



fermenta- 



tive changes. This view is strengthened, as M 



cs 



n ^^ ^^^ pointed out, by the fact that in these cases, instead 

 , , J870, p- ^^'' ^f meeting some of the various kinds of organisms which 

 Avhich the air 3- ^j.^ considered to have representatives in the air. and 



Organiqy^' ^^^. whose spores or ova may be supposed to have been 

 '^ ^^t traitei^^"^ sown, it is often merely Bacteria which are encountered. 

 \ I'air non seiij^|^^^ And these differ in no respect from those that may pre- 

 sent themselves in a somewhat similar infusion, which 





I'air 

 encore 



es, c'est-a 



yg 



sur 



la 



Genera 



■atio» 



^ Loc. cit., p. 40. 



^ See M. Pouchet's 'Nouvelles Experiences,' 1863, pp. 94-107. 



VOL. II. 



C 



