ORIGIN OF INFUSORIA. 
335 
methods, M. Pasteur has “proved” the necessary non-appear¬ 
ance of infusorial organisms, as Dr. Sharpey asserts, because 
opposite results have been obtained by other able experi- 
mentors who have made analogous trials. In France Messrs. 
Pouchet, Joly, and Musset, and in America Professor 
Wyman, adduce experiments that flatly contradict those of 
M. Pasteur. We gave some account of Mr. Wyman’s 
experiments in No. 9, p. 229, and they will be found in 
detail in Silliman’s Journal , or in the Chemical News of August 
30th. Several of these trials were made as described in the 
following extract :—“ Two flasks each of 550 c.c. capacity, 
and each containing about 20 c.c. of beef juice and urine, 
were hermetically sealed at the temperature of the room, 
wrapped in cloth, and exposed for two hours in boiling water. 
The film formed on the fourth day. One of them was opened 
on the fifth and the other on the eleventh, and both found 
to contain Bacteriums.” In experiment 35, pieces of mutton 
in an hermetically sealed flask were boiled for ten minutes in 
a Papin’s digester, under the pressure of five atmospheres. 
“No film was formed. The flask was opened on the forty- 
first day. Monads and vibrios were found, some of the latter 
moving across the field. No putrefaction ; the solution had 
an alkaline taste.” In four instances out of thirty-three no 
organisms appeared, but the balance of the results was dis¬ 
cordant with those of M. Pasteur, Professor Asa Gray being 
present at the opening of some of the flasks. In experiment 
12, the juice of an ounce of beef, to which was added 10 c.c. 
of urine and 40 c.c. of water, was boiled twenty minutes in 
a bolt-head and hermetically sealed. A film formed on the 
fourth, and the flask was opened on the eleventh day, when 
there was a distinct rush of air outwards. Large numbers of 
Bacteriums were found, also small spherical bodies with 
ciliary motions and oval bodies like kolpods, containing what 
appeared to be Bacteriums. One of these kolpod-like bodies 
moved with cilia. 
After these experiments, it is obvious that there is some¬ 
thing else to be done than simply to acquiesce in the results 
of M. Pasteur, notwithstanding his scientific eminence and 
skill. Nor is it true, as Dr. Sharpey appears to conceive, 
that the presence of germinal spores in the atmosphere suffi¬ 
cient to account for the appearance of infusoria in solutions 
has been ascertained. M. Pasteur certainly discovered some 
spore-like bodies, but we believe he never identified any of 
them as eggs of infusorial animals. Professor Wyman states, 
as the result of many examinations of dust deposited in attics, 
and of the particles floating in air and collected on glass 
