224 



Prof. H. C. Bastian on the Heat [Mar. 20, 



II. " On the Temperature at which Bacteria, Vibriones, and their 

 Supposed Germs are killed when immersed in Fluids or 

 exposed to Heat in a moist state/' By H. Charlton 

 Bastian, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Pathological 

 Anatomy in University College, London, Received March 4, 

 1873. 



For more reasons than one we may, perhaps, now look hack with 

 advantage upon the friendly controversy carried on rather more than a 

 century ago between the learned and generous Abbe Spallanzani and our 

 uo less distinguished countryman Turberville Keedham. Writing 

 concerning his own relation to Keedhain, the Abbe said*, " I wish to 

 deserve his esteem whilst combating his opinion"; and, in accordance 

 with this sentiment, we find him treating his adversary's views with 

 great respect, and at the same time repudiating much of the empty and 

 idle criticism in which so many of Needham's contemporaries indulged 

 with regard to his work. This criticism, Spallanzani saysf, " Without 

 looking into details, contented itself by throwing doubt upon some of 

 the facts, and by explaining after its own fashion others whose possi- 

 bility it was willing to admit." He moreover warmly reprobated the 

 ignorant and disrespectful statements made by an anonymous writer who 

 had shown himself little worthy of being heard upon the subjects in 

 dispute. Spallanzani on this occasion very wisely said j: — " When it is a 

 question concerning observations and experiments, it is necessary to 

 have repeated them with much circmnspection before venturing to 

 pronounce that they are doubtful or untrustworthy. He who will 

 allow himself to speak of them with contempt, and who can only 

 attempt to refute them with writings composed by the ghmmer derived 

 from a treacherous lamp, will not find himself in a condition to retain 

 the esteem of learned men." The anonymous writer (in his 'Lettres a, 

 un American! '), to whom Spallanzani referred, had gone so far as to 

 doubt the statements of INeedham as to the constant appearance of 

 organisms in infusions which had been previously boiled, and also 

 intimated that even if they were to be found, it was only because they 

 had been enabled to resist the destructive influence of the boiling fluid. 

 This latter assertion was emphatically denied by Spallanzani, his 

 denial being based upon a most extensive series of experiments with 

 eggs in great variety and with seeds of all degrees of hardness ; these 

 were all found to be killed by a very short contact with boiling water. 

 Spallanzani had thoroughly satisfied himself that even very thick-coated 

 seeds could not resist this destructive agent ; whilst he thought that the 



* Nouvelles Recherches sur les Decouvertes Microscopiques et la Generation des 

 Corps Organises, &c. London and Paris, 1769, vol. i. p. 69. 

 t Loc. cit. p. 9. % Loc. cit. p. 114. 



