1871.] The Theory of Atmospheric Germs. 165 



Penicillium, and Aspergillus were completely disorganised by 

 being boiled for a short time in water. So, also, Bastian 

 showed that a fungus and spores heated in a sealed flask for 

 four hours to 153 C. ; that is to say, treated in precisely the 

 same manner as the solutions which yielded him, in the 

 case of infusions, evidence of life and organisation, were 

 completely disorganised. " Not a single entire spore could 

 be found ; they were all broken up into small, more or less 

 irregular, particles." But it behoves us to inquire further as 

 to the signification of this disruption. We can quite agree 

 that by the influence of the heat the spore is torn asunder 

 and dissipated into fragments, but it is another thing to 

 assert that such fragments are bereft of all vital property. 

 Observations have all tended greatly to show that our 

 notions concerning a " spore " must be modified. It is not, 

 like the seed of a phanerogamous plant, the nucleus of a 

 single organism, but a collection of extremely minute indi- 

 vidual particles, each of which may become a definite 

 organism. Though, therefore, we may agree that there is an 

 apparent disintegration of the visible spores, we need not 

 subscribe to the view that every one of the individual par- 

 ticles succumbed to the destructive influence. Disruption 

 need in no way connote destruction. The divided polyp is 

 not destroyed, but its fragments grow into fresh organisms, 

 and a dismembered portion of a plant can become an indi- 

 vidual tree. We may agree that the spores have lost the 

 power of reproducing the plant whence they were originally 

 derived, but we know also that the surroundings and the con- 

 ditions of pabulum are greatly changed by the influence of the 

 heat, and this maybe a sufficient explanation. One observes 

 when mildew grows upon organic matter, that though a 

 certain species (say Aspergillus, for instance) maybe shedding 

 its spores in all directions, these do not spring up as suc- 

 cessive crops of Aspergillus — a species totally distinct in form 

 succeeds it, and so on through the generations following. 

 We are not bound to believe, therefore, from the apparent 

 evidences of physical destruction, that every particle is 

 rendered lifeless; certainly we cannot conclude this from 

 a priori grounds. To say that because higher forms would 

 have lost vitality, therefore lower or embryonic forms must 

 lose it likewise, would be equivalent to estimating the 

 power of resistance to physical influences of a spermatozoon 

 from the power of resistance of a developed animal. 



Dr. Bastian asserts that the vitality of vibrios and 

 bacteria is destroyed by the boiling temperature : when 

 infusions containing active bacteria and vibrios are boiled, 



