SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 303 



being suddenly added to the temperatures with which 

 both of us had previously worked. Waiving all protest 

 against the caprice thus manifested, I met this new 

 requirement also. The sealed tubes, which had proved 

 barren in the Eoyal Institution, were suspended in per- 

 forated boxes, and placed under the supervision of an 

 intelligent assistant in the Turkish Bath in Jermyn 

 Street. From two to six days had been allowed for 

 the generation of organisms in hermetically-sealed 

 tubes. Mine remained in the washing-room of the 

 bath for nine days. Thermometers placed in the boxes, 

 and read off twice or three times a day, showed the 

 temperature to vary from a minimum of 101° to a 

 maximum of 112° Fahr. At the end of nine days the 

 infusions were as clear as at the beginning. They 

 were then removed to a warmer position. A tempera- 

 ture of 115° had been mentioned as particularly favour- 

 able to spontaneous generation. For fourteen days 

 the temperature of the Turkish Bath hovered about 

 this point, falling once as low as 106°, reaching 116° 

 on three occasions, 118° on one, and 119° on two. The 

 result was quite the same as that just recorded. The 

 higher temperatures proved perfectly incompetent to 

 develope life. 



Taking the actual experiment we have made as a 

 basis of calculation, if our 940 flasks were opened on 

 the hayloft of the Bel Alp, 858 of them would become 

 filled with organisms. The escape of the remaining 82 

 strengthens our case, proving as it does conclusively 

 that not in the air, nor in the infusions, nor in anything 

 continuous diffused through the air, but in d/iacrete 

 particles, suspended in the air and nourished by the 

 infusions, we are to seek the cause of life. Our experi- 

 ment proves these particles to be in some cases so far 

 apart on the hayloft as to permit 10 per cent, of our 



