158: THE DESTRUCTIVE INFLUENCE OF 
we are more immediately concerned, as to the thermal 
death-point of Bacteria and their germs, has itself 
been answered by most decisive experiments. As 
the writer has elsewhere already shown,* all direct 
experimentation on this subject leads to the conclusion 
that Bacteria and their germs, whether visible or in- 
visible, are killed by a brief exposure to a heat of 
140° F. in the moist state. Thus Dr. Sanderson’s 
experiments having proved that the germs of these 
organisms are, as regards their ability to withstand 
desiccation, related to eggs rather than to seeds, 
the writer's own experiments tend still further to 
strengthen this resemblance by showing that these 
Bacteria germs (like the eggs with which Spallanzani 
experimented) are invariably killed at a temperature 
of about 140° F. 
Although, therefore, my experiments are not 
favourable to Spallanzani’s assumptions, they are 
entirely in accordance with his experiments. The 
thermal death-point ascertained by him for the eggs 
of Insects and of Batrachia agrees almost exactly 
with that which I have established for Bacteria 
germs—although at the time my own experiments 
were made I was unaware of these particular results . 
obtained by Spallanzani.t 
* In the two papers which precede this. 
+ Up to that time I had read his earlier work entitled, “ Nouvelles 
