172 THE DESTRUCTIVE INFLUENCE OF 
concerned, has, moreover, been completely demon- 
strated by the fact that organisms will occur just as 
freely under conditions where no such objection can 
be alleged, that is, when the vessel and its contents 
are heated by submergence in boiling water, after 
it has been hermetically sealed—a mode of heating 
which those who adduced the objection above men- 
tioned ought to have known had been occasionally 
adopted by different experimenters since the time 
of Spallanzani. 
(c.) The third objection raised is no less remark- 
able, owing to its being similarly brought forward 
as an unsupported supposition in the face of much 
other evidence testifying to its nullity. When the 
writer's earlier experiments were first recorded, the 
public was authoritatively told by ‘Professor Huxley 
that the results were quite unworthy of credence. 
The fact that tons of meats and vegetables were an- 
nually preserved from putrefaction by a very similar 
process was supposed to be the strongest evidence 
that he had in some manner deceived himself. It 
was never suggested or thought of, therefore, at this 
time that such moist meats and vegetables were in- 
capable of being heated through, even when pounds 
of them were aggregated together. It was, in short, 
implicitly said that they could be so heated, and the 
fact of the preservation of the meats and vegetables 
