Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/714

694 Dr. Roberts infallibly contained them. In the gentle movement of the air to and fro as the temperature changed, or in any shock, jar, or motion to which the pipette might be subjected, we have certainly a cause sufficient to detach a germ now and then from the cotton-wool, which would fall into the infusion and produce its effect. Probably, also, condensation occurred at times in the neck of the pipette; the water of condensation carrying back from the cotton-wool the seeds of life. The fact of fertilization being so rare as Dr. Roberts found it to be, is a proof of the care with which his experiments were conducted. But he did find cases of fertilization after prolonged exposure to the boiling temperature; and this caused him to come to the conclusion that, under certain rare conditions, spontaneous generation may occur. He also found that an alkalized hay-infusion was so difficult to sterilize that it was capable of withstanding the boiling temperature for hours without losing its power of generating life. The most careful experiments have been made with this infusion. Dr. Roberts is certainly correct in assigning to it superior nutritive power. But, in the present inquiry, five minutes' boiling sufficed to completely sterilize the liquid.

Summing up this portion of his inquiry, the author remarks that he will hardly be charged with any desire to limit the power and potency of matter. But, holding the notions he does, it is all the more incumbent on him to affirm that, as far as inquiry has hitherto penetrated, life has never been proved to appear independently of antecedent life.

Though the author had no reason to doubt the general diffusion of germs in the atmosphere, he thought it desirable to place the point beyond question. At Down, Mr. Darwin and Mr. Francis Darwin; at High Elms, Sir John Lubbock; at Sherwood, near Tunbridge Wells, Mr. Siemens; at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park, Mr. Rollo Russell; at Heathfield Park, Miss Hamilton; at Greenwich Hospital, Mr, Hirst; at Kew, Dr. Hooker; and at the Crystal Palace, Mr. Price, kindly took charge of infusions, every one of which became charged with organisms. But to obtain more definite insight regarding the diffusion of atmospheric germs, a square wooden tray was penetrated with a hundred holes, into each of which was dropped a short test-tube. On October 23d, thirty of these tubes were filled with an infusion of hay, thirty-five with an infusion of turnips, and thirty-five with an infusion of beef. The tubes, with their infusions, had been previously boiled, ten at a time, in an oil-bath. One hundred circles were marked on paper, so as to form a map of the tray, and every day the state of each tube was registered upon the corresponding circle. In the following description, the term "cloudy" is used to denote the first stage of turbidity, distinct but not strong. The term "muddy" is used to denote thick turbidity.

One tube of the hundred was first singled out and rendered