8 Pasteur on Spontaneous Generation. 
alcohol. The whiteness and glare of the ice, in the light of the 
sun, was so great that it was impossible to see the jet of alcohol 
flame, and as it was agitated by the wind it could not be directed 
upon the glass with sufficient steadiness to melt the point and 
hermetically seal the flask. As no means were at hand to render. 
the flame visible, the,flask could not be sealed, and there remained 
chances of error by the admixture of other powders. The three 
flasks which had been opened were therefore taken to the small 
village of Montanvert and sealed at his lodgings the next morn- 
ing, after they had been exposed all night to, the dust of the 
chambers where he slept. Of these three flasks only two -pro- 
duced either infusoria or mould. Since the number of flasks 
altered in this experiment is greater than that in those which 
followed, (the twenty flasks preriongly noticed), Pasteur con- 
cludes that the agitation of the liquid during the journey had 
no influence upon the development of germs. 
It therefore appears to be satisfactorily demonstrated : 
1. That the air of inhabited places contains a greater relative 
number of fruitful germs than the air of uninhabited regions. 
2. That the ordinary air contains only here and there, without 
any continuity, the condition of the first existence of generations 
sometimes considered spontaneous, Here, there are germs and 
there, there are none. 
From all these experiments Pasteur concludes that: Powders 
suspended in the air are the exclusive origin, the first and nec- 
al a " 
Oe ere 
