154 CONOEENING PRESENT 



fluids were heated for the times and degrees mentioned in an 

 autoclave, and when the flasks were opened very various Hving 

 organisms were found in the fluids. Other experiments might 

 be cited, but those referred to are sufficiently typical. 



(3) The production of different micro-organisms at will from 

 healthy urine. 



One of the arguments of Pasteur, and also of Lister, William 

 Roberts and others, against the present occurrence of Archebiosis 

 was this. They met the objection that in flask experiments with 

 suitable fluids negative results are due to the degradation of the 

 organic constituents in the fluids, owing to the heating of them 

 many times to minor degrees or once to some major amount, 

 by saying that milk, blood, or urine if taken directly from the 

 body, with all necessary precautions against external contamina- 

 tion, can be preserved indefinitely without change and without 

 the appearance therein of any micro-organism. This of course 

 is what ought to occur if such fluids are, as they maintained, 

 germless, and if the present occurrence of Archebiosis is such 

 a chimera as they imagined it to be. 



Twenty years ago I resolved to test these statements for myself, 

 taking urine as the test fluid because ©f the greater facility for 

 multiplication of experiments therewith. During a period of three 

 months I made nearly two hundred experiments, using all the pre- 

 cautions recommended by Lister as needful in such experiments. 

 The urine was passed either into one of his receivers or else 

 directly into the experimental vessels, and in all cases the vessels 

 employed were thoroughly flambes. The urine experimented 

 with had only a moderate amount of acidity, as it was always 

 found to be capable of being neutralised by from 7-10 minims 

 of liquor potassjE to the ounce. 



The results that I obtained in the large majority of cases were 

 divisible into four categories : — 



(i) Urine passed into a flambe vessel, and subsequently kept at 

 temperatures ranging between 16° and 30° C. would, as Pasteur, 

 Lister and others say, remain clear and free from all signs 

 of change. 



(2) Urine passed into a flambe vessel and subsequently kept 

 at a temperature of about 45° C. would almost invariably become 

 turbid within three days, and on examination be found to swarm 

 with Micrococci. 



