486 The Controversy on Spontaneous Generation : [Oct., 



some of the most profound biologists ; but after bestowing upon 

 them the careful consideration which they well deserve, and trying 

 such experiments as seemed to me to throw light upon some of the 

 mysterious appearances described by him, I have come to the con- 

 clusion that, so far as he is concerned, the argument stands just 

 where it was, and that the question is likely to remain an open one 

 for a long time to come. 



Many will* no doubt, remember that some years since Professor 

 Huxley, influenced by the astounding revelations of organic che- 

 mistry, and by the facility with which one form of organic matter 

 after another was being synthetically produced by chemists in their 

 laboratories, ventured on the bold speculation that possibly experi- 

 mentalists might one day be able " to take inorganic matters such as 

 carbonic acid, ammonia, water, and salines in any sort of inorganic 

 combination, and be able to build them up into protein matter, and 

 then that that protein matter ought to begin to live in an organic 

 form;"* but Dr. Bastian believes that he has accomplished even 

 more than this, that he has taken solutions of saline substances in 

 proportions which he details most circumstantially, has exterminated 

 in them all the germs which they might possibly be said to contain, 

 and by excluding the atmosphere has prevented the entrance of new 

 ones which might be said to be floating in that medium ; and that, 

 yet, after intervals varying from nine or ten to forty days there have 

 been spontaneously produced in and from those substances, not par- 

 ticles of protoplasm as it was hinted possible by Professor Huxley, 

 but truly organized plants and small ciliated infusoria. 



But, in the first place, his own account of these experiments is 

 often very vague. For example, he tells usf that he prepared a 

 solution of crystallized white sugar, tartrate of ammonia, phosphate 

 of ammonia, and phosphate of soda, which was boiled for twenty 

 minutes and kept in vacuo nine days ; and, to use his own words, 

 " when examined microscopically a few monads and bacteria were 

 found in the first drops of the liquid which had been poured out 

 before the whole was shaken." 



So far, after nine days' exposure he found only what has been 

 seen by a score of observers over and over again, and cautious in- 

 vestigators, such as Dr. Child, Dr. Beale, and others (as I ventured 

 years since to predict), have refused to admit many of these minute 

 moving specks to be living organisms at all. But he goes on to 

 say, "The remainder was then poured into a conical glass, and 

 after having been allowed to stand for a time, the supernatant fluid 

 was removed and the last few drops containing the sediment were 



* ' On our Knowledge of the Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature ;' 

 being Six Lectures to Working Men. By Professor Huxley, F.K.S. London : 

 R. Hardwicke. 



t 'Nature,' July 7, pp. 195-6. 



