116 THE DEATH-POINT OF BACTERIA 
to M. Pasteur in explanation of these facts. What 
did M. Pasteur do? Following the same method as 
he had formerly employed,* he again ignored one of 
the equally possible interpretations, and unsuccess- 
fully attempted to prove, by a repetition of similar 
reasoning,t that the different results in the two 
series of experiments were due to the fact that the 
germs of Bacterta and Vibriones which had been 
killed by the temperature of 212° F. in the first series 
were not killed by this temperature in the second 
series (in which a slightly alkaline fluid had been 
employed), although they were destroyed by the 
higher temperature of 230° F. Thus results which 
were due to the action of not-living ferments 
were ascribed to living ferments, and the possible 
action of not-living ferments was ignored, although, 
as I have said before, the ostensible object of M. 
Pasteur’s researches was to inquire into the relative 
importance of not-living and living ferments, or 
whether, in fact, ‘dead’ substances (in the ordinary 
acceptation of the word) could act as ferments. 
When viewed from the stand-point of the physico- 
chemical theory of fermentation, the apparently 
contradictory results arrived at by the same experi- 
menter at different times or by different experi- 
* See note ~ on page 113. 
+ See “Ann, de Chim. et de Phys.” 1862, pp. 60-65. 
