exposed to the ordinary atmosphere around us, why, of course, you may
have organisms appearing early. But, on the other hand, if they are
exposed to air from a great height, or from some very quiet cellar, you
will often not find a single trace of life.

So that M. Pasteur arrived at last at the clear and definite result,
that all these appearances are like the case of the worms in the piece
of meat, which was refuted by Redi, simply germs carried by the air and
deposited in the liquids in which they afterwards appear. For my own
part, I conceive that, with the particulars of M. Pasteur's experiments
before us, we cannot fail to arrive at his conclusions; and that the
doctrine of spontaneous generation has received a final 'coup de
grace'.

You, of course, understand that all this in no way interferes with the
'possibility' of the fabrication of organic matters by the direct
method to which I have referred, remote as that possibility may be.


[Footnote] 1 Those who wish to study fully the doctrines of
which I have endeavoured to give some rough and ready
illustrations, must read Mr. John Stuart Mill's 'System of
Logic'.