Fig. 1.-The simplest forms of Life-Bacteria, Torule, &c.
Fig. 2.-Bacteria, Vibriones, and Leptothrix filaments.

18

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, M.A., M.D., F.R.S.,

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS;

PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON ;
ASSISTANT PHYSICIAN TO UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL, AND TO THE NATIONAL HOSPITAL
FOR THE EPILEPTIC AND PARALYSED.

London and New York:
MACMILLAN AND CO.

1871.

[All rights reserved.]

66

QUANT à ce qui concerne la prétendue incubation d'oeufs d'Infusoires dans l'infusion, il faudrait d'abord prouver l'existence de ces œufs. Les dit on trop

petits pour être aperçus, c'est avouer qu'on ne peut rien savoir de leur existence. *** Croire que partout où l'on rencontre des Infusoires, ils ont été précédés d'œufs, c'est donc admettre une pure hypothèse, qui n'a d'autre fondement que l'analogie. *** Si c'est seulement par l'analogie qu'on suppose des œufs chez eux, il faut accorder à ces œufs des propriétés semblables à celles de tous les œufs connus; car ce serait jouer sur les mots que de supposer qu'ils en ont de particulières à eux seuls." BURDACH'S Traité de Physiologie, Translation by Jourdan, 1837, t. i.,

AND CHARING CROSS.

PREFACE.

HAVING been compelled by the results of my investigations on the question of the Origin of Life to arrive at conclusions adverse to generally received opinions, I found that several persons having high authority in matters of science, were little disposed to assent to these views. To a great extent this seemed due to the fact that a distinguished chemist had previously gone over some of the same ground, and had arrived at precisely opposite conclusions. M. Pasteur has been long known as an able and brilliant experimenter, and some of his admirers seem to regard as an almost equally faultless reasoner.

him

Renewed and prolonged experimentation having tended to demonstrate the truth of my original conclusions, and to convince me of the utter untenability of M. Pasteur's views, it seemed that the best course to pursue would be, at first, to endeavour to show into what errors of reasoning

M. Pasteur had fallen, and also how his conclusions were capable of being reversed by the employment of different experimental materials, and different experimental methods. Then, having presented, in a connected form, evidence which might suffice to shake the faith of all who preserved a right of independent judgment, one might hope to have paved the way for the reception of new views-even though they were adverse to those of M. Pasteur. The present volume contains, indeed, only a fragment of the evidence which will be embodied in a much larger worknow almost completed - relating to the nature and origin of living matter, and in favour of what is termed the physical doctrine of Life.

The question of the mode of origin of Living Matter, is inextricably mixed up with another problem as to the cause of fermentation and putrefaction. M. Pasteur's labours were, at first, undertaken in order to solve the latter difficulty to decide, in fact, between two rival hypotheses. It was held, on the one hand, that many ferments were mere dead nitrogenous substances, and that fermentation was a purely chemical process, for the initiation of which the action of living organisms was not necessary; whilst, on the other hand,