1 66 The Theory of Atmospheric Germs, [April, 



the result is the disruption of the vibrios and the disappear- 

 ance of all signs of life in the bacteria. " All their peculiarly 

 vital acts have at once ceased > and they have henceforth 

 displayed nothing but mere Brownian movements." It must, 

 however, be remembered that such diagnosis of vitality is 

 purely arbitrary. In the course of putrescence, no one can 

 tell when movements cease to be Brownian and commence 

 to be vital; conversely, when the special bacterian movements 

 have been caused by heat to cease, no one could assert that 

 the movements of the debris were purely mechanical ; or, if 

 all movements had ceased, it could not be positively stated 

 whether vitality had been annihilated or only paralysed. 



In face of all the facts it cannot be said that the hetero- 

 genists have proved their case, that subjection to a heat of 

 153 C. is an absolute test of the absence of vitality. When 

 we see the extraordinary powers of persistence and of resist- 

 ance of life-possessing matter, any single test which we may 

 impose, unaccompanied by collateral evidence, cannot 

 satisfactorily prove the absence of vitality. The very 

 experiments themselves, which are supposed to prove the 

 impossibility of vitality by the stringency of the adverse 

 influences employed, demonstrate how vital matter defies 

 such adverse influences. Could one predict that, even if low 

 forms could originate, complete fungi could grow and fructify 

 in the conditions of vacuum and of pabulum which would be 

 profoundly altered by the exceedingly high temperature ? 

 But not only so ; in some of Dr. Bastian's experiments the 

 growth of organisms seems to have been favoured by the 

 conditions. As, therefore, with phanerogamous plants there 

 is a wide range of temperature-conditions most befitting the 

 perfection of different species, so there is no reason for denying 

 to lower forms a wider range than our a priori views would 

 have led us to imagine. 



We will now turn to the second part of the argument 

 advanced in favour of the heterogeneous evolution of the 

 organisms found in these conditions, viz., the impossibility 

 of the pre-existence of living matter in the materials 

 employed in the experiments. The chief evidence in this 

 direction is adduced by Dr. Bastian from his experiments 

 with saline substances. In examining crystals of the neutral 

 tartrate of ammonia, Dr. Bastian found in their interior 

 positive evidences of fungoid germs. Far from this being an 

 argument in favour of the transformation of crystalline into 

 living matter, many will consider that it lends weight to the 

 germ theory. Upholders of the latter assert the universal 

 presence of germinal molecules. Dr. Bastian shows them to 



