OCCURRENCE OP ARCHEBIOSIS 153 



of organisms found therein are fully described in this same memoir 

 in subsequent pages (pp. 53-60), and illustrations of some of the 

 organisms met with are given. 



Two points worthy of note concerning the changes occurring 

 in such hay infusions are these. When an infusion of this kind 

 has been heated only to 100° C, and subsequently becomes fertile, 

 it may always be seen to change uniformly throughout its whole 

 bulk. There is no cloudiness gradually spreading from centres 

 of infection ; but a uniform opalescence, gradually increasing to 

 actual turbidity, throughout the fluid, which at the same time 

 becomes gradually paler in colour. On the other hand, where this 

 or any other clear infusion has been heated to 110° C. and 

 upwards, such a change almost never occurs. We have then 

 altogether different appearances. The bulk of the fluid remains 

 clear, though, after days or weeks, a very slow accumulation 

 of sedimentary matter occurs ; and in this, on microscopical 

 examination, in addition to different kinds of Bacteria it is most 

 common to find Torulae and other Fungus germs together with 

 some Mycelia, such as I have figured as having been found in the 

 experiments above referred to. 



The finding, however, of Torulae and other Fungus germs, with 

 Mycelia, in these superheated fluids, is a fact of great significance 

 in view of the statement by de Barry (with whom others agree) 

 in regard to spores of Fungi generally — namely, that they have 

 never been shown to be capable of surviving in fluids at a 

 temperature of 100° C' 



This, however, is not all ; I can point to two experiments 

 in which other fluids were heated in closed tubes to 132-135° C. 

 for twenty minutes, and to one in which the fluid was heated 

 to 144° C. for five minutes, and yet after some weeks, when the 

 flasks were opened Torulae and other Fungus spores were found 

 among the sedimentary matter, such as I have elsewhere described 

 and figured.^ I can with the utmost confidence refer to these 

 three experiments as being free from all flaw or ambiguity. The 



" In his " Nouvelles experiences sur la Generation Spontanee " 1864, pp. 126 

 and 190, Pouchet records experiments in which beer-wort which had been 

 boiling for five and six hours respectively, gave rise in full and hermetically 

 sealed vessels to swarms of Torulae, in the course of a few days. 



' See " The Beginnings of Life," vol. i., pp. 441, 443 and 447. During the 

 process of raising the temperature to 132-135° C. and subsequent cooling, these 

 fluids would have been exposed to at least 115° C. for nearly one hour, and 

 of course longer still in the case of the fluid heated to 144° C. 



