82 THE DEATH-POINT OF 
tamination ‘advanced by Spallanzani (warrantable 
and natural as it was at the time) is one which, in 
the great majority of cases, is devoid of all founda- 
tion in fact, so far as concerns the organisms 
essentially associated with processes of putrefaction, 
viz. Bacteria and Vibriones. The means of proving 
this statement based upon independent observations 
made by Professor Burdon Sanderson and myself, 
were recently submitted to the consideration of 
the Royal Society:t Before the reading of this 
communication I was under the impression that 
almost everyone of those who had taken part in 
the controversies which had been carried on both 
here and abroad concerning the Origin of Life 
were prepared to admit, as Spallanzani had done, 
that the eggs or germs of such organisms as appear 
in infusions were unable to survive when the infusions 
containing them were. raised to the temperature at 
which water boils. This impression was produced 
in part by the explicit statements on this subject 
that had been made by very many biologists, and 
also in part by a comparatively recent and authori- 
tative confirmation which this view as to the 
destructive effects of boiling infusions upon Bac- 
teria had received. Little more than two years 
ago Professor Huxley, as President of the British 
* See Proceedings of Royal Society, No. 141, 1873, p. 129. 
