520 LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
do we know that ? Because it can easily be proved that if you can pre¬ 
vent Bacteria or their germs entering the liquid no putrefaction takes 
place. I have here two tubes, which after filling with wine, we boiled 
so as to kill any Bacteria there may be in them, and then cover one with 
cotton wool and leaving the other exposed; placing them in a suitable 
temperature you will find that the one in which the air that comes in 
contact with it has been filtered through cotton wool no change has 
taken place; in the other the process of putrefaction is going on. And, 
as must be patent to any one examining them, this proves several things : 
—Firstly. That the organic matter has no inherent power of generating 
Bacteria. Secondly. Matter has no inherent power of passing into 
decomposition. Thirdly. That Bacteria are the actual agents of decom¬ 
position. Many far more elaborate and conclusive experiments have 
been performed to prove these facts, but I will only just briefly allude 
to them. Turnip water : two specimens that were kept for over two 
years. Ozone was passed through one and the air filtered ; it remained 
statu quo , whilst the other was green, thick, and very offensive. Professor 
Tyndall has proved that air optically pure will not produce Bacteria. 
When a ray of sun or other concentrated light is passed through a bottle 
containing filtered air nothing is visible, whilst the ordinary atmosphere 
contains particles of dust, which reflect the light and give a beautiful 
luminous track. I say Professor Tyndall has proved that when air is in 
this state organic matter does not putrefy, but only introduce a drop of 
water, or anything that has been in contact with the atmosphere, and the 
processes commences at once. You who have seen what minute things 
Bacteria are, will at once conclude how difficult it is to detect the germs 
that produce them. What has already been said pretty clearly proves that 
they are due to germs, and not to spontaneous origin. Two facts, how¬ 
ever, come to light that almost upset this. The first is that Bacteria are 
invariably killed when exposed to a temperature of 140° F. or any 
higher temperature. The other fact is that certain liquids, as neutra¬ 
lised hay infusion and milk, often produce Bacteria after being boiled, 
sometimes after several hours’boiling, and where there was no possibility 
of subsequent injection. This looked like spontaneous generation. 
Professor Colin, of Breslau, has, however, thrown some light on this 
mystery. He found that while 140° F. might kill the parent, the germ 
or spore was not affected by a very much higher temperature. Mr. 
Dollinger and Dr. Drysdale have also demonstrated that whilst certain 
living Monads were killed at 140° F., the spores, which are so minute 
that they cannot be detected by the highest power of the microscope, 
except in masses, are capable of germinating after being subjected to a 
heat of 300° F. for ten minutes. One of these experimentalists most 
graphically describes the minuteness of these objects. He says they 
cannot be so called, for an object is a thing of which we can take cogni¬ 
sance by some of our senses aided or unaided, and that germs lie so 
completely beyond the powers of our present instruments that their 
existence is for the present matter of inference not of direct observation. 
Although at present beyond our ken, we can say, “ by their fruits ye shall 
know them.” For the purpose I have in view it will be necessary for me 
to prove the connection between Bacteria and a septic state .of the 
system as seen in septicaemia, to which I shall refer presently. Burdon 
Sanderson after killing healthy rabbits immediately took some internal 
organ, as liver or kidney, and plunged it in fused paraffin at 230° F., 
and after allowing the mass to solidify covered it with Venice turpentine, 
to prevent any air getting to it through the cracks that were apt to form 
in its cooling. After several days, on cutting into it the outer portions 
