Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/716

696 instructive to some who may chance to he at all dubious as to the destructive effects of boiling water upon lower organisms.

Probably, however, some of my readers may already be possessed by the notion that the disastrous effects just referred to are consequences following rather from the fact of the high organization of man's tissues than from any intrinsic incompatibility of nature between living matter and boiling water. The thought is natural enough and not unjustifiable. On the other hand, it will not do to attach much importance to it. Let us for a moment consider the effects produced upon an ordinary hen's egg by a brief immersion in boiling water. Here we have the "white," composed of albumen, similar to that which enters so largely into the composition of living tissues, turned from a clear fluid into an opaque solid; and we have the "yelk," made up of a dense aggregation of the simplest living units, also more or less solidified. In spite of the investing calcareous shell, these very obvious and destructive effects can be produced upon this large egg or germ by an exposure for three or four minutes to the influence of boiling water. Yet the living matter in this case is so simple that it possesses next to no organization—it is so little vitalized that it can only be considered to be half alive.

The conclusion would seem, therefore, to force itself upon us that there is something intrinsically deleterious in the action of boiling water upon living matter—whether this living matter be of high or of low organization.

This subject is one of great importance in many respects, so that it may repay us to look into the evidence bearing upon it with some degree of care. It is of great practical importance, for instance, in reference to the process of disinfection by heat, where we have to do with articles of furniture or wearing apparel used by a person suffering from a contagious disease. Because, in such a case, what we ought undoubtedly to know is, whether the temperature of boiling water, or even some lower temperature, suffices to kill any living particles which may act as so-called "germs of disease." This is a subject upon which there should be no room for doubt. Again, from a purely scientific point of view, the question is of equal cogency because of its bearing upon one of the most momentous problems in biological science—namely, that of the Origin of Life. It is on this latter account, more especially, that I now take up the inquiry as to the grade or degree of heat which proves destructive to different kinds of living matter.

A preliminary word of explanation, therefore, must be given concerning the bearings of this question upon the Origin of Life problem.

It is at present very generally admitted, upon the strength of well-known experiments, that living matter will appear and grow rapidly in hermetically-sealed flasks containing certain fluids, after the