EXPERIMENTS ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION, ETC. 
123 
both these views. He has recently said, “Professor Tyndall’s 
results, admirable as they may be in themselves, are altogether 
collateral , and do not bear upon the main point at issue.” * 
Surely the “ main point at issue ” is tlie mode of origin of 
bacteria, and we cannot get much nearer the origin of an 
organic form than by tracing it to a genetic product — a spore ! 
This was originally Dr. Bastian’s question — did bacteria origi- 
nate de novo, or from parents? It is not so now. He says, 
“ The question is, not what air does or does not contain, since 
I have long ago shown .... that boiled fluids can be made to 
putrefy and swarm with bacteria in closed flasks, from which 
air and whatever it may contain has been expelled.” f The 
same reasoning also obtains in his communication to the 
“ Lancet ” J and to “ Nature.” § The result is clear. The 
doctrine of “ spontaneous generation ” rests upon exceptions for 
its truth. In rare instances, and in special infusions, bacteria 
have appeared after prolonged boiling. After a careful sifting 
of the evidence, the meagreness of the testimony is striking. 
All that can be fairly taken at all, when justly weighed, if taken 
altogether, is not equal to the evidence given by Dr. Burdon 
Sanderson. || But it is well known that, while admitting and 
publishing the facts, he ignores absolutely Dr. Bastian’s infer- 
ence. And surely this is the truer philosophy. Let it be 
granted that by means not now explicable, the germs of bacteria, 
destructible in filtered infusions at a boiling temperature, are 
feebly, and at times, able to survive a slight continuation of the 
boiling point in infusions containing solid particles without ap- 
parent injury, is not that a ground for enquiring the reason 
why, rather than for inferring “ spontaneous generation ? ” If 
we can prove that in 99 cases out of 100 actual germs are 
destroyed at 212° F., but that, in exceptional circumstances, 
the remaining one case yields bacteria after exposure to 212° F. 
for some minutes, is not that a reason for inferring, and looking 
for, some protective influence upon the germ, rather than 
launching into an hypothesis of an new mode of origin ? 
That the medium in which minute organic forms are subjected 
to heat exerts an influence on their subsequent deportment I 
can abundantly prove. I am equally convinced that the death- 
point of bacteria germs hovers very near the boiling point of 
water — a conviction amply sustained by fact. This being so, 
the survival, as germs, of some few, amidst incalculable myriads, 
by some accidental protection, is surely possible. So that, 
indeed, all true work now should be a study of the germ and its 
-:e. a Times,” Jan. 29, 1876. t Ibid. 
% Feb. 5, 1876. § Feb. 10, 1876. 
j| “ Nature,” Jan. 9, 1873, vol. vii. and vol. viii. 
