HEAT UPON LIVING MATTER. 157 
104° F., but also that, ‘‘fully-formed Bacteria are 
deprived of their power of further development by 
thorough desiccation.” Thus is the most important 
assumption made by Spallanzani swept away, and 
with it all the strength that his position may 
have appearéd to possess. His followers cannot 
hope to save their germs from the full action of 
heat, however much they may wish to do so (and 
there are strong signs that they are thus influenced) 
by assuming the pre-existence of a protective desic- 
cation. Are they not told, on what is to them the 
unquestionable authority of Professor Sanderson, that 
such desiccation would be in itself destructive ? 
(6) We are left, therefore, face to face with only 
one other question. Has the progress of science, it 
may be asked, since the time of Spallanzani, in any 
way tended to strengthen the possibility that Bacteria 
germs, or any forms of living matter in the moist 
state, can resist the destructive action of boiling water, 
even for two or three minutes? To this question a 
negative answer may be unreservedly given. The pro- 
gress of science has, on the contrary, shown that such a 
supposition becomes more and more improbable when 
judged by the light of all uncomplicated investigations 
bearing on the subject. To these results of modern 
research I must now call the reader’s attention. 
In the first place the specific question with which 
