The modes of origin of lowest organisms. Bastian Henry Charlton
cannot take place without the agency of living ferments, we cannot receive hypotheses in evidence: facts are needed. These, no one attempted to supply in an adequate manner13 anterior to the investigations of M. Pasteur. Speaking of his researches, even M. Milne-Edwards says,14 “Previous to this time, the existence of reproductive particles, or infusorial germs in the atmosphere was nothing more than a plausible hypothesis, put forward in order to explain the origin of such creatures in a manner conformable with the general laws of reproduction; but it was only a mere supposition, and no one had been able actually to see or to handle these reproductive corpuscles.”
We have to look, therefore, to M. Pasteur’s investigations, and to others which may have been since conducted, for all the scientific evidence in support of what has been called the “Panspermic hypothesis.”
By an ingenious method of filtration, which is fully described in his memoir,15 M. Pasteur separated from the air that passed through his apparatus the solid particles which it contained. This search convinced him that there were, as he says, “constantly in ordinary air a variable number of corpuscles whose form and structure declare them to be organized.” Some of these, he thinks, resemble the spores of fungi, and others the ova of ciliated infusoria, though he adds: – “But as to affirming that this is a spore, much less the spore of any definite species, and that one is an egg, and belonging to such an infusorium, I believe that this is not possible.” He limits himself, in fact, to the statements, that the corpuscles which he found, were (in his opinion) evidently organized; that they resembled in form and appearance the germs of the lower kinds of organisms; and that, from their variety in size, they probably belonged to many different sorts of living things. Even here, therefore, we have to do with the impressions of M. Pasteur, rather than with verified statements. All that has been established by his direct investigation as to the nature of the solid bodies contained in the atmosphere is this: that the air contains a number of round or ovoidal corpuscles, often quite structureless, which he could not distinguish from the spores of fungi16– some of which, being about the right size, were round or ovoidal, and structureless. In addition, however, it has been shown that the air contains other rounded corpuscles which are similarly structureless, though composed of silica or starch. It may therefore be asked, in the first place, whether the conclusion is a sufficiently safe one that many of the corpuscles found by M. Pasteur were spores of fungi; and in the next place, supposing this to have been established, whether such spores were living or dead. These questions would have been answered satisfactorily if M. Pasteur could state that he had actually watched the development of such corpuscles, in some suitable apparatus, into distinct organisms. But any such development, he distinctly states, he never witnessed. He says17: – “What would have been the better and more direct course would have been to follow the development of these germs with the microscope. Such was my intention; but the apparatus which I had devised for this purpose not having been delivered to me at a convenient time, I was diverted from this investigation by other work.” The evidence which he does adduce, in subsequent portions of his memoir, in order to prove that some of these corpuscles were really “fertile germs,” is almost valueless, because all the facts are open to another interpretation, which is just as much, nay, even more, in accordance with Baron Liebig’s than with his own doctrine of fermentation.
But another most important consideration presents itself. M. Pasteur’s researches as to the nature of the dust contained in the atmosphere enable him to say nothing concerning the presence of Bacteria, although he himself admits that these are generally the first organisms which display themselves in fermentations or putrefactions, and that in a very large majority of the cases in which fermentation occurs in closed vessels they are the only organisms which make their appearance.18 And yet, notwithstanding these facts, M. Pasteur says, in reference to the common form of Bacterium: – “This infusorial animal is so small that one cannot distinguish its germ, and still less fix upon the presence of this germ, if it were known, amongst the organized corpuscles of the dust which is suspended in the air.”
Here, then, we have a confession from M. Pasteur himself, that all evidence fails, where it is most wanted, in support of his hypothesis.
If a large number of fermentations begin with the presence of Bacteria as the only living things, and if in a number of cases no other organisms ever occur, it is useless to adduce as evidence, in proof of the view that fermentations are always initiated by air-derived organisms, the fact that certain corpuscles (supposed to be spores of fungi) are recognizable in the atmosphere – capped by the distinct statement19 that Bacteria or their germs are not recognizable. If Bacteria are not recognizable in the atmosphere, what scientific evidence is there that the fermentations in which these alone occur are initiated by Bacteria derived from the atmosphere, or from certain imaginary Bacteria germs,20 which we are supposed to be unable to distinguish? M. Pasteur may, moreover, be reminded that when he resorts to the supposition of Bacteria possessing “germs” which are indistinguishable, he is again resorting to hypothesis rather than to fact, in order to prove the truth of the particular doctrine of fermentation which he advocates. Bacteria are known to reproduce and multiply only by a process of fission; each of the parts into which they divide being nothing more than a part of the original Bacterium, and therefore endowed with similar properties of resisting heat, desiccation, and other agencies. Any resort to invisible germs to account for the multiplication of Bacteria, which are known to reproduce freely in other ways, is obviously not permissible, unless such postulation be more or less necessitated by the occurrence of facts otherwise inexplicable.
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