Ur£^ 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



13 



comp 



The ab ' universal, is only occasional, and whether this or an 



opposite fate awaits the different fluids, is shown, as 



ts are opposite tate awaits tne ditrerent nuias, is snown, as 



of \\\- ^^'^' already stated, to be almost wholly dependent upon their 



\. 



nature. The comparative experiments not only lend 

 no countenance to M. Pasteur's theory, that fermentation 

 cannot be initiated without the agency of living fer- 

 ments — they are, on the contrary, wholly opposed to 

 this restriction. 



The plug of cotton-wool, or the narrow and bent 

 laving recouE; tube, may, it is true, protect the boiled fluid from subse- 

 ia which poU: quent contact with living 'germs;' but that the fluids 

 ual length oft do not undergo change on account of such deprivation 

 ' subsequentlji cannot be safely aflSrmed, when the same means would 

 lence of the s also filter from the fluid some of the multitudinous 



.t behaviour oi 



^ those of i\i: 



• undergo 

 -ription, m 



■mcnt. 

 Pasteur's f 



matter 



air Un- 



as, we are m 



doubtedly contains, and which may act as ferments. 



usions; 



butt 



It must be remembered 



M 



fl 



d to elimit 



isteur 



and 



aled of 



itive 



merits 



oi 



ferme 



ntatiofl 



Pasteur's investigation was to determine whether fer- 

 mentation took place under the agency of mere dead 

 nitrogenous matter, as Liebig and others affirm, or 

 whether it is only initiated by living organisms, as 

 he himself supposes. Obviously, therefore, the same 

 filtration which purified the air from any living organ- 

 isms would filter from it its nitrogenous particles. 



which are the other possible ferments : so that no con- 

 ^^lusively ^^ elusion could be drawn from such experiments more 



favourable to the one than to the other of these two 



hypotheses. All that could have been safely affirmed 



far f^^^ " ^^^5 t^-'^t ^y boiling the fluid, and then protecting it 



ler 



ion 



on; 



of this 



kind- 



