Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Evolution and the beginnings of life. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)
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![himself, and ward off the conclusions of his opponent. He saw fully, and had frankly admitted,* that there was but one means of escaping from Needham's con- clusions. But, were these means legitimate ? (a) Although it is doubtless true that the superior dryness of seeds does enable them to resist the in- fluence of heat longer than moist eggs are able to do, and therefore also enables them apparently to resist for a brief period a temperature notably higher than would have proved fatal to them had they been in a moist state—it is altogether another question when we have to decide whether the naturally moist Bacteria or their germs are really endowed with this seed-like property of developing after desiccation. To main- tain his Panspermism in the face of his own experi- ments, Spallanzani was compelled to assume that the germs of the lower Infusoria do possess this potentiality. Modern science, however, declares that they have no such property. We are told most un- reservedly by Professor Burdon Sanderson,f not only that the germinal particles of microzymes [Bacteria] are rendered inactive by thorough drying without the application of heat, that is, by mere exposure to air for two or three days at a temperature of * See p. 142. t Thirteenth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, p. 61.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21270454_0176.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
