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sions were examined under a powerful microscope, and in 
some were found various forms of animal life. How came 
they there ? The Doctor concluded that by the action of heat 
all the germs of life which might have been in the water were 
destroyed, and therefore, as life was now present, it must 
have been produced de novo, or in other words, there must 
have been spontaneous generation. Shortly after Dr. Bastian 
published the account of these experiments. Professor Huxley, 
in his address to the British Association, questions the con- 
clusions of the Doctor, and while claiming for himself ^‘‘a 
philosophic faith in the probability of spontaneous genera- 
tion in the far-off past, still says that Biogenesis — that is, 
life through the action of life — appears to me, with the limi- 
tation I have expressed, to be victorious along the whole line 
at the present day.^^ Again. In the year 1879 Dr. Tyndall 
performed a number of experiments with a view of further 
testing the question. He procured sixty flasks, in which he 
placed infusions of beef, mutton, turnips, and cucumber. Ml 
these infusions were boiled for a certain length of time, and 
while boiling the necks of the flasks were sealed. The Doctor 
now carefully packed up and removed them to his house at 
Bel- Alp in Switzerland, at an elevation of 7,000 feet above the 
sea. When the box was opened fifty-four of the infusions 
were found to be clear, and six muddy. On close examina- 
tion it was discovered that the flasks containing the muddy 
infusions were damaged, and, as a consequence, the air had 
entered. In these various forms of life were found to exist. 
The fifty -four remaining flasks were now exposed for three 
weeks to the sun^s rays by day, and to the warmth of a room 
by night ; at the end of the time they were as clear as at the 
commencement. Four of the flasks were now damaged, and 
the fifty remaining were divided into two sets. Twenty-seven 
were carried up to a ledge of the Alps 10,000 feet above the 
sea. The ends of the flasks were now broken, and the whole 
were allowed to remain for a period of three weeks exposed to 
wind which was blowing across the snow-capped peaks of the 
Oberland. At the end of three weeks the infusions were 
found as clear as they were before the exposure, and when 
submitted to microscopic investigation there were no traces of 
animal life. 
The other twenty-three flasks were taken to a hay-loft in 
the rear of the Doctor's house ; the necks were broken off, 
and the infusions allowed to remain for three weeks in direct 
communication with the air. At the end of the time the 
infusions were found to be muddy, and when submitted to 
microscopic investigation were found to be rich in animal life. 
