394 Address of Professor Husley. 
It is demonstrable that inoculation of the experimental fluid 
with a drop of liquid known to contain living Pree gives 
rise to the same phenomena as exposure to unpurified ai 
And it is further certain that these living particles are so mi- 
nute that the assumption of their suspension in ordinary am 
presents not the slightest difficulty. On the contrary, consider 
mg their lightness and the wide diffusion of the organisms 
which produce them, it is impossible to conceive that they 
should not be suspended in the atmosphere in myriads. 
Thus the evidence, direct and indirect, in favor of Biogenesis 
for all known forms of life must, I think, be admitted to be of 
great weight. 
On the other side, the sole assertions worthy of attention are 
that hermetically sealed fluids, which have been exposed to 
great and long-continued heat, have sometimes bey i living 
_forms of low organization, w when they have been opened. 
_ The first reply that suggests itself is the brobabitiee that there 
nust be some error about these experiments, because they are 
t 
~ fermentable and putrescible infusions are preserved to the ex- 
_ tent, I suppose I may say, of thousands of tons every year, by 
-amethod which is a mere application of Spallanzani's experl- 
- ment. The matters to be preserved are well boiled in a tin case 
ome with a small hole, and this hole is soldered up when 
all the air in the case has been replaced by steam. By this 
method they may be kept for years without putrefying, fer- 
menting, or getting mouldy. Now this is not because pe’ 
is excluded, inasmuch as it is now proved that free oxyg 
not necessary for either — or oe ea It is Zot 
because the tins are exhausted of air, for Vibriones and Bacteria 
live, as Pasteur has shown, without air or erin oxygen. Itis 
not because the boiled meats or vegetables are not putrescible 
or a as those who have had the sae tape to be in 
sag to are nealliy x ren it ‘by 1 no “men *. 
Abiogenesis has taken place. The resistance of ors 
to heat is known to vary within eotidiatalsio limits, sr re ee 
pen some extent, upon the chemical and physical qualities 
of the inbending medium. But if, in the fer state of 
se aS seein oF He post recent series of experiments of this descrip- 
se pags spy 
= Nature, No. xxxv, P. 1705 No. sx50h P 
eke 
