1872.] 



Evolution of Life from Lifeless Matter. 



155 



the living bacteria liad been killed, or were, at any rate, motionless. 

 Careful observation, however, showed the minute vibriones to be as lively 

 as ever ; they curled and twisted, and dived out of focus just as when alive. 

 The same fact was noticed in a turnip infusion. Pasteur proved that the 

 germs of vibriones in milk were not killed till the liquid was heated to 

 110° C* I fancy that the recent experiments of Dr. Crace-Calvertf lead 

 him to fix the fatal temperature at too high a rate (between 150° and 

 200° C), supposing the vibriones to be immersed in the liquid ; but if any 

 of them be left adhering to the glass tube, possibly not. The fact that hay 

 infusion contains, besides such multitudes of living things, great quantities 

 of organic debris, led to the conclusion that no safe experiments could be 

 made with such a liquid. If a liquid be boiled in a flask and sealed up, it 

 depends very much upon the nature of the liquid whether life will be developed 

 in it : thus, if we take a most carefully prepared saline or sugar solution, the 

 water used being particularly pure, and the salts dissolved and recrystallized 

 with all possible care, the chances are that nothing will come of it; but if, 

 on the other hand, a liquid swarming with life be chosen, the conditions 

 will be most favourable for depositing living things on the sides of the 

 vessel, where they will be out of reach of the boiling liquid, and, getting 

 washed off into the liquid when cool, will there multiply. On this account, 

 the use of hay infusion in particular has led to erroneous deductions, from 

 faulty experiments. To any one who will make a strong infusion of hay 

 with lukewarm water, and examine it with the microscope, it will, I am sure, 

 be simply inconceivable how any appearance of accurate evidence can be de- 

 rived from such a fluid, particularly when the liquid is not heated above 

 the boiling-point. 



It must be allowed that Pasteur's experiments prove that when ferment- 

 able liquids were protected from matter floating in the air, fermentation 

 would not take place. Now the first evidence we have of fermentation in, 

 for instance, a saccharine solution, is the presence of Torula-eells ; more- 

 over, to set up fermentation, the Torula is placed in saccharine fluid, the 

 operation of every brewery. It is evident, then, that either the Torula is the 

 agent of fermentative change, or is closely connected with it. But whence 

 arises the Torula ? From matter floating in the atmosphere ? in that case, 

 seeing they are invariable and definite organisms, which are produced from 

 variable liquids, it must be from invariable and definite matter that these 

 organisms arise. Whence come, what is the origin, the nature, the che- 

 mical composition, or, more particularly, the chemical constitution of the 

 so-called dead organic particles of this invariable nature, producing such 

 invariable yet tremendous changes in such very simple substances, and to 

 what class of chemical compounds do they belong ? Until this question 

 has been satisfactorily answered, ordinary reason would assign to them the 

 possession of life, for their properties are the properties possessed by none 

 but living things. If these organic nitrogenous particles are not living, 



Ann. Chiin. Phys. torn. lxiv. p. 61. f Proc. Eoyal Soc . vol. xix. p. 472. 



