COXDITTONS TAVOURING FERMENTATION. 



45 



But after the superheating of the potash-tubes to 284°-eS02° F. 

 (110^-150° C.) for sixty minutes, and to 230° P. (110° C.) for 

 twenty hours, as recorded in this paper p. 31, with the produc- 

 tion of fertilization as before — so long as the potash is properly 

 proportioned to the urine — more conviction may, perhaps, be 

 brought to the minds of others as to the absence of living germs 

 within the potash-tubes. 



This facile explanation of my results has therefore been proved 

 to be erroneous, and my fertilizing experiments have been conclu- 

 sively shown to belong to a different order from those previously 

 familiar to experimenters — in which the added matter had always 

 been unheated*. 



M. Pasteur's interpretation of the fertility of boiled neutral 

 or faintly alkaline fluids has thus been fully disproved. It may, 

 moreover, be further disproved by direct experiment, in the fol- 

 lowing manner. We may take some turbid urine having a neutral 

 or faintly alkaline reaction in which both Bacteria and Bacilli are 

 swarming and rapidly multiplying, and we may compare the rela- 

 tive efi'ects of heating these organisms with their reproductive 

 particles to 212° F. in a neutral and in an acid medium respec- 

 tively. Three series of experiments are needed : — 



2. Ferment-organisms heated to 

 212° F. in a faintly Alkaline Fluid. 

 Place one minim of the same faintly 

 alkaline turbid fluid in a little tube, 

 draw out its neck and seal. 



1. Ferment-organisms heated to 

 212° F. in an Acid Fluid. 

 Add one minim of the faintly alka- 

 line turbid fluid containing ferment- 

 organisms and their germs to one 

 ounce of urine whose acidity is more 

 than equivalent to m x of liquor po- 



Boil 2" over the flame, seal, and then 

 8" in boiling water with the flask or 

 retort in an inverted position. 



When cool place in incubator at 

 122°F. 



Result. — No change in fluid. 



Immerse this tube in a vessel con- 

 tainmg one ounce of the same specimen 

 of urine. 



Boil 2", seal, boil 8" in same man- 

 ner, and when the fluid is cool, break 

 the tube so as to liberate organisms 

 which have been heated in their own 

 faintly alkaline medium. 



Place in incubator with others at 

 122° F. 



Result. — No change in fluid. 



* This is now fully admitted by M. Pasteur. He no longer seeks to deny 

 that, acting in accordance with the original terms of his challenge, I can get 

 the results which he then defied me to produce (see Compt. Rend. July 23, 

 1877, tom.lxxxv. p. 178, where a totally different explanation of ray experiments 

 is brought forward). The reason wliy this was not brought out before the 

 Commission of the French Academy, appointed to report upon the question, is 



