July 23, 1870.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
G5 
may be worked up into soda. The thick syrup so 
resulting is next evaporated down, heated to redness, 
fused, and poured into a mould. 
Inasmuch as the price of sodium is five shillings 
a pound, the yield of soda from a pound of the metal 
being about one pound and three-quarters, it is plain 
that the alkali so prepared must be cheap. The 
danger of exjdosions (which, however, do not occur 
when proper care is taken) necessitates the employ¬ 
ment of stalled labour in this manufacture, and con¬ 
stitutes a very serious drawback to the commercial 
success of the process. 
NOTE ON THE DIVISION OF POWDERS BY THE 
EYE. 
The practice of dividing powders by the eye (in¬ 
stead of by the balance), so often resorted to in dis¬ 
pensing, is illustrated by the following examples, 
which we quote from the ‘ Medical Times and 
Gazette.’ 
A number of packets of patent medicines having 
been purchased, each separate powder in the packets 
was weighed with the following results 
Patent 
Medicine A. 
Packet I. 
Packet II. 
Grains. 
Grains. 
1 
. 2-25 
1 . 
,. 1-49 
2 
. 2-23 
2 . 
,. 1'87 
3 
. 2-22 
3 . 
,. 2-07 
4 
. 1-99 
4 . 
,. 1-84 
5 
2-09 
5 . 
,. 1-57 
6 
. 1-42 
6 . 
,. 1-60 
7 
. 1-83 
7 . 
,. 1-60 
8 
. 1-73 
8 . 
.. 2-78 
9 
. 2-74 
9 . 
,. 1-93 
18-50 
16-75 
Mean .... 2-06 
Mean .., 
,. 1-86 
From which it appears, that with a mean weight 
of 2'0G grains for the single powder in a packet of 
this patent medicine, the weight of one powder 
taken at random may fall as low as P42 grains, or 
rise as high as 2'74 grains. It also appears that, 
with a mean weight of l - 86 grains, the weight of a 
powder taken out at random may be from 1'49 to 
2'78 grains. 
Patent Medicine B. 
Part of a Packet. 
1 . 
2 . 
. 5-60 „ 
3 . 
15-67 
Mean , 
. 5-22 
Patent 
Medicine C. 
Packet I. 
Packet II. 
Grains. 
Grains. 
1 
. .. 2-81 
1 . 
2 
... 2-37 
2 . 
. 2-66 
3 
. .. 2-50 
3 . 
. 3-06 
4 
... 2-61 
4 . 
. 2-93 
5 
... 2-66 
5 . 
. 2-46 
'6 
... 3-00 
6 . 
. 3-08 
7 
... 2-72 
7 . 
. 3-02 
8 
... 2-59 
8 . 
. 2-69 
21-26 
23-60 
Alcan . 
... 2-66 
Mean ... 
. 2-95 
Packet III. Packet IV. 
1 
Grains. 
. 2-63 
1 
Grains. 
. 2-60 
2 
. 2-27 
2 
. 2-94 
o 
O 
. 2-33 
3 
. 2-46 
4 
. 2-43 
4 
. 2-84 
5 
. 3-27 
5 
. 2-78 
6 
. 2-34 
6 
.. 2-78 
7 
. 2-33 
7 
. 2-46 
8 
. 2-69 
8 
. 2-86 
20-29 
21-72 
Mean .... 2*53 
Mean .... 2-71 
FACTS AND REASONINGS CONCERNING THE 
HETEROGENEOUS EVOLUTION OF LIVING THINGS. 
Under this title, in a paper recently published in 
‘Nature,’ Dr. H. C. Bastian discusses the theory of 
spontaneous generation. He remarks that in all ages 
there have always been believers in the possibility that 
“ living things of various kinds could come into being 
de novo , and without ordinary parentage,” but that du¬ 
ring the last hundred years this doctrine has lost ground. 
This he attributes partly to the effect produced by open¬ 
ing the field of microscopic research, and partly to the 
philosophical doctrines which have prevailed. 
In order to combat the theory of the possibility of 
spontaneous generation, the Abbe Spallanzani pro¬ 
pounded the hypothesis that “multitudinous, minute, 
and almost metaphysical germs existed everywhere, 
ready to burst out into active life and development 
whenever they came under the influence of suitable con¬ 
ditions.” This was reinforced by the doctrine of u l’em- 
boitement des germes,” contributed by Bonnet. Armed 
with these two hypotheses, one set of physiologists have 
maintained that the low forms of annual and vegetable 
life which make their appearance during the decay of 
vegetable and animal matter owe their origin to the 
development of germs previously diffused through the 
organic matter, or else reaching it by the atmosphere, 
which was supposed to be a kind of general reservoir of 
germs of all sorts. Another set of physiologists main¬ 
tained that, under certain conditions, complex mixtures 
of organic matter have the property of evolving lowly 
organized living beings without requiring the pre-exis¬ 
tence of their germs. The details-of the controversy 
between these two sets of physiologists are to be found 
in the works of Pouchet, Pennetier, and Pasteur. 
"What is the degree of maltreatment which destroys 
germs ? This question must of necessity occupy a front 
place in the controversy, and to this question Dr. Bas¬ 
tian first addresses himself. 
Those who deny the possibility of spontaneous gene¬ 
ration are naturally predisposed to attribute to germs a 
high power of resistance, for the harder it is to. destroy 
germs, the easier will it be to show that in a given ex¬ 
periment the possibility of germs has not been elimi¬ 
nated. Little fear, therefore, that the limit of vital 
resistance has been set too low. Placed in a liquid, living 
things will succumb to treatment which does not destroy 
them when they exist in dry air or. in vacuo. Com¬ 
paratively few living beings, either animal or vegetable, 
are capable of sustaining a temperature of 75° C., if 
they are immersed in a liquid; and no instance of sur¬ 
vival of a temperature of 100° C., applied for one minute, 
is on record. With regard to the spores of fungi and 
to bacteria and vibrios,—the living things whose history 
is in dispute,—there is direct and explicit evidence that 
they are instantly destroyed by boiling water. Vibrios 
and bacteria, indeed, appear to die at 55 3 C., according 
to M. Pouchet, and below 60° C., accordir% to M. Victor 
Meunier. Dr. Bastian himself ftmnd them .not only 
dead but disintegrated after exposure to boiling water 
for one minute. 
