The Modes of Origin of Lowest Organisms: including a Discussion of the Experiments of M. Pasteur, and a Reply to some Statements by Professors Huxley and Tyndall

Abstract

IT may be as well to state at the outset that the present volume is not Dr. Bastian's long-promised work on “The Beginnings of Life;” and it would have been better had some title been devised to prevent the confusion that will inevitably be caused by its appearance at this juncture. We have here, however, a condensed sketch of the whole controversy on Spontaneous Generation, and a statement of some very important researches conducted by the author since the discussion which followed Prof. Huxley's Presidential Address at Liverpool last September. It will be remembered that the objections to Dr. Bastian's experiments and to the results he deduced from them were twofold. It was said that we have no proof that these minute organisms (Bacteria, &c), or their germs cannot resist the heat to which they were subjected. It was also said that no proof was given that the supposed organisms found by Dr. Bastian in these boiled and hermetically sealed liquids were alive. The motions exhibited might be “Brownian” motions, and the experimenter probably found nothing in his vessels but what he put into them. The answer to these objections is now given. The test of vitality is said to be, not movement, which is admitted to be uncertain, but the power of reproduction. It is found that if a portion of liquid containing Bacteria is divided into two parts, one of which is boiled, and a drop from each of these portions is mounted as a microscopic object, under a covering glass surrounded by quickly-drying cement, the unboiled specimen exhibits a marked increase from day to day in the quantity of imprisoned Bacteria, while the boiled specimen continues unchanged during the same time. Making use of this test of vitality, it was next ascertained what degree of heat was fatal to these low organisms. By using a lower and lower temperature, it was found that exposure to 140° F. for ten minutes destroyed Bacteria, while after exposure to 131° F. for the same time they rapidly multiplied. Somewhat higher organisms— Vibrios, Amœbæ, Monads, Vorticellæ, &c., were, however, killed by exposure to 131° F. for five minutes. It was subsequently ascertained that a four hours' exposure to a temperature of even 127° F. destroyed Bacteria and Torulæ. It is argued that, as in all these experiments the solutions used swarmed with Bacteria, &c, in various stages of increase, their hypothetical “germs” cannot be supposed to have been entirely absent; and that we may therefore conclude that the “germ” has no greater power of resisting heat than the animal itself.

The Modes of Origin of Lowest Organisms: including a Discussion of the Experiments of M. Pasteur, and a Reply to some Statements by Professors Huxley and Tyndall.

By H. Charlton Bastian, &c. (Macmillan and Co., 1871.)