, 1870-11-27

EtIWb- 1a=3eul experiments On tEls SUD- :
jeet were announced in 1862, tho date at I
vLich Professor Huxley c!oses his history. |
FoE our remaining facts NC have to draw upon |
Dr. nAHti1n's continuation Of the story- rfp- /
fester Tymau, Of. Cambridge. d. s., Profes-
.oE Mamie gazza, Of Tuiin, aLd Professor Can
tori, Of pavia, have all tried similar expert. |
mrntt. IN Nh,ch temperatures Of from G. 100
70 C.. Ia wero employed, and, notxi,hstand-
ing thie, they have found LIVING organisms in |
their solutions. Fiuslly, DR.. Dasdln, in m
elaborate paper published In Nature, very
t thoEtly before Professor Huxley's address vas
delivered, ninutejy describes and pictures the
living cEganIsms which be drained from he.-
been Subjected by Professor Farmland 10 4
o? c. 150 for scye1al Lou,e. Whit
makes the experiments the more startling il,
that the RuiIa employed In several OF them
were not infuriots OF Organic matter, but mere
solutions Of crystals Of s,lts. containing. Of
course, the necessary elements Of organic
In ore OF these, figured 1t p. 200 Of Nature
for july 4, 1870, the solution was composed
Of tartTate OF ammonia ard phosphate Of 60
d.. Tie air was exhausted. and the 1ask
he' znttically sealed and kept for four hous
1A. Prof. Franklands name sufficiently at
tests the cue with which these processes
we're performed. When cooled, ths fluid wls
clear. but sitter many daya froecutent ma .ses
=; reated. The fask was broken by DR.. Das.
tian. in tie presence OF Dr.: sharpey; one Of
and placed neder the microscope. Whist Dr..
Eahtian And DR.. Sharpcy SAW is drawn in
Nature ut the page VIC have mentioned
There il mlss Of spores with filamepts iasu-
ing from them, afd 4 large, tully-deseloped
fungus.
III only oIo OF maE, though, perhaps. among
tie II lost re mazka& &fe-must chxugs tue whole
aspect OF the controversy, uplesa it eau sone-
how or other be e1 1plainetl away, together w1th
the analogous rtBrpts Of Wyman, M1ntegazza,
end Cantoni. II tlsese are tounl experiments,
FREQ from any csTor that can be assigned, they
are no, met bJ the TACT that rasteu1 aud 9TH
GRE, though WORKING under less stringent
conditions, aud With suasta1lces presumably
more favoiabto to tho production Of life. nsv-
erthcaeeE failed again and again to discover
trace tf living mnttek. Prof. Huxley Thought
il enough, in hi. att1es+. to diape:e Of all the
modern e1FerimentctB nLose results differed
fsom Pasteurs, Ly Saying that there might be
some es1or. Undoubtedly there nay he error
in tic experiments OF anT man, especially
upon such d subject, AID tho moral whicl un-
prejudice mincs would draw il not that al tue
evlteIce Oh one tide u to bs dislegarded, but
that it will be well to suspend ohes judgment
until other inyeatEatoIa have repeated the
process with analogous or disco1dant sesults.
as the caeo may be-
But Professor Ha1ley has ia rccensly
published letter given his Interpretation Of
IAesa ext1Ao1dinAty experiments, and the
question is now reduced 10 the nArrowest and
,isves that he saw organisms which grew IN
the solutions after all lie hAd been destroyed
by the heat to which they had been
| subjected Professor Huxley believes that
| what wa4 scen in the microscope con-
sisted merely Of impurities In ths
the heat applied to then, ard retained the
Il rms which pr. Das1ian has figured. Ger
| taihly III tie absence Of experiment to justify
| II, this EecnB an Hypothesis OF protuntous
difficulty. Has It ever been shown that il il
possible for such things ~ are drawn in the
hgu.e wo have Eeierfed. to say nothlag 81
tho Other cxpcrimente, to escape dislnteEra'
tiun under temperature of G, $50? The
experiment Las tEcu tried. Professor Frank
| 1Hnd Inns repeated his p1oeuss upon Aask il
! which vas fluid containing spores aud fun
eu4 US near1y like thoaG in tho impugneI c4'
pertinent al Dr.. Hastian coull procure. Whe1
EXAMINED it, the microscope, pr. Naatian a.
might have been expected, found them usterl!
0ieintcEratc1. UuIGss Professor Huxley cal
reverse tllis last experiment., his explanation
OF tho former series OF Results ulu.t be wrong
though il by no means foiloss that Dr.. Bis
tlan IL right. 1t il quite conceivable ths
closer insestigas;on may explain these Eesulsi
| HAAQAt GAklEt o. A1llAAAH AQIkAAAG "a 2FSA
taneous 6eheraiiou, or the equally astonishing
theory Of r1of. Huxley ~ to the power oI re
eistiug heat possessed By 1cllcaie fungi nut
their spo,es. At present We cannot gues
whether such an explanation will be dls3ov
cred, or, il no, What it will bc. We wait 10
The ,cpctition hy Independent snqui1ers Of d
Bas.ians experiments. aud suspenl our jads
nent; aid hero We would leave til
subject Lad not Prof. Huxley use,
oEo moro Argument the motive OF which j
more apparent than its point. He tells 7,
that, in an unpublished experiment privatei
exhibited TO himself. Dr.. Nastian hal Allowe
fragment Of sphaglun leaf to got into th
solution. ard that when il appeared in til
field of the microscope it WAS tome t.oie he
J fore he could be brought to rect gnize il
Even il this circumstance mad been less t1Iele
vaLt than it ecems to tls az affecting Dr.. Bls
tiau'4 conclusions, it would still leave the II
cults Of Wynlan. Aiantegazza, and Cantor
to Dr. Bastau. what does tho spl,agnunl stor
. lprove: Simply that dead foreign mattel
capable OF standing q temperature OF {
l50. migLt fairly IL looked for in any 9
The specimens examined, and more
over that sphaEnum WAS tough enoag
toucl tic question, unless Professor Hn1le
. i. prepared to day aud to prove that sue
things "a Dr.. Das,inu and DR.. ShaIpey ea
were matter of this description I Ths poi1
! relied on throughout tho Investigation wa
not tile exclusion Of foreign matter, but u
destruction OF vitality, aud the forcs Of Il
! eare1iIents would be in no way weakened
: DR.. Bsstian had never seen sphagnnol in Il
hfc+ Like many grcatrr men. Dr. b.stian r
1outt made q blunder when he failed to re
| cgniza common enough object. But PI
, fessor Huxley committed greater blunder
: the use lie made Of his alyersa1J's slip
blunuc1, We may add, 60 little in his mann
as to encourage the hope that it may rema
unique. OF al men ia tho verdi Profess
, Huxley is surely the last who would wish
: substitute authority for experiments. or d
. ele 10 c1,,sl an opponent whom he fails, '
: think, TO answer.