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organization whatever takes place. As to boiling the water, it is a remarkable 
fact that some of these germs do not seem to be destroyed by raising the fluid 
to the boiling point, but if you raise it to ten or fifteen degrees Fahrenheit 
above the boiling point, they are destroyed. At one time it was supposed 
that boiling would be a sufficient means of destroying the vitality of all germs 
that might exist in the fluid, but that is not so. It requires a higher 
temperature. But if you take sufficient pains to destroy or exclude all 
germs, no organization will ever take place. That is, I believe, the simple 
state of the case. 
Mr. Howard.— I entirely concur in the views of the chairman, which have 
been mu (& better expressed than I could have succeeded in doing. 
The Chairman. — Of course this is a very vital point in the discussion of a 
very important subject. It is one which I have carefully considered, and 
upon which I have made myself acquainted with all the facts ; because if 
you once grant the formation of one of the simplest of these bodies— these 
little monads— these particles of organized nature, by the mere action of 
inorganic forces, and grant the theory of successive development, then you 
may go on to something higher, then you get to mollusca, and then, accord- 
ing to the Darwinian theory, you may get up to man, and step by step you 
supersede the necessity of a Creator. That is the gist of the whole argument, 
and therefore the fundamental point— namely, the possibility or the impossi- 
bility of the formation of any, however lowly organized being, without the 
influence of a pre-existing germ. If you once admit that, all the rest follows 
as a necessary sequence. That is the foundation of all we feel bound to 
support, 
Mr. Newton. — And hence the importance of Mr. Howard’s paper. 
The Chairman. — Exactly. 
The Meeting then adjourned. 
