So THE DEATH-POINT OF 
statements made by an anonymous writer who had 
shown himself little worthy of being heard upon the 
subjects in dispute. Spallanzani on this occasion 
very wisely said* :—“ When it is a question concerning 
observations and experiments, it is necessary to have 
repeated them with much circumspection before 
venturing to pronounce that they are doubtful or 
untrustworthy. He who will allow himself to speak 
of them with contempt, and who can only attempt to 
refute them with writings composed by the glimmer 
derived from a treacherous lamp, will not find him- 
self in a condition to retain the esteem of learned 
men.” The anonymous writer (in his ‘Lettres a un 
Américain’), to whom Spallanzani referred, had gone 
so far as to doubt the statements of Needham as to 
the constant appearance of organisms in infusions 
which had been previously boiled, and also intimated 
that even if they were to be found, it was only 
because they had been enabled to resist the de- 
structive influence of the boiling fluid. This latter 
assertion was emphatically denied by Spallanzani, 
his denial being based upon a most extensive series 
of experiments with eggs in great variety and 
with Seeds of all degrees of hardness; these were 
all found to be killed by a very short contact with 
boiling water. Spallanzani had thoroughly satisfied 
» Loc. cit, p. 114. 
