180 THE DESTRUCTIVE INFLUENCE OF 
credible that whilst all known forms of living matter 
with which accurate experiment has been made in- 
variably perish at or below 140° F., the particular 
examples of some of the same forms which appear 
within our sealed flasks have been able to survive a 
much longer exposure to 270-275° F. If this were 
true, then indeed would the cultivation of Science be 
a vain pursuit— uniformity,’ in fact, must be postu- 
lated and granted, or Science with humbled and 
sorrowful crest must retire from the field. 
A word or two may be said in conclusion with 
reference to the interpretation which should be at- 
tached to such experiments as those just recorded. 
And this subject cannot be better introduced than 
by means of the following extract from the already- 
quoted and valuable paper by Professor Jeffries 
Wyman.* He says :—“ There can therefore be no 
certainty of the existence of spontaneous generation 
in a given solution, until it can be shown that this 
has been freed of all living organisms which it con- 
tained at the beginning of the experiment and kept 
free of all such from without during the progress 
of it. On the other hand, this kind of generation 
* Whilst these pages have been passing through the press the sad 
news has reached us of the premature death of Professor Wyman. In 
him Science has lost one of her most faithful followers. 
