Bacteria, the smallest of living organisms / by Ferdinand Cohn ; translated by Charles S. Dolley.

  • Ferdinand Cohn
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bacteria, the smallest of living organisms / by Ferdinand Cohn ; translated by Charles S. Dolley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    t BACTERIA. 27 believes that the grain rust originates from chilling, but that it springs from germs which are scattered by the barberry bushes, or other fallen stalks, and that the blight may be arrested in wheat, if the seed is strained through sulphate of copper, in order to kill the spores which cling to it. Concerning bacteria and their related fermentations, the above mentioned observations lead without doubt to the con- clusion that they oi'iginate as little through equivocal generation as other living organisms ; for when nitrogenous mateidal from the animal and plant world is cooked in flasks, even at as low a temperature as 60° C., all the bacteria are killed, and if the entrance of new germs from outside is in every way hindered, and it were possible to keep the little flask forever, no bacteria would ever originate of themselves. On the contrary the entrance of a single germ is sufficient to cause multiplication, and with it putrefaction. If bacteria originate from putrid material through . equivocal generation, putrefaction must appear before bacteria ; but experience shows the contrary, that putrefaction is a conse- quence of the development of bacteria. Within the last few years a theory has caused some sensation by seeking to account for the origin of bacteria by saying that the ordinary mould- fungus will, under certain conditions bring forth moving germs of extraordinary minuteness; which germs are capable of devel- oping into bacteria, into yeast, and Anally again into mold. When bacteria ai-e found in the blood or other organs in certain diseases, the authors of this theory are satisfied that the spores of common mould or blight fungus germinate in the human body ; that these gei’ins first swarm as bacteria, but under suitable culture may be nourished into different kinds of mould. How- ever, unprejudiced research has not given the slightest proof that bacteria stand in any connection with the history of the . development of yeast, blight, or mould fungus. They always originate, as far as we know at present, from germs of the same kind. Through these facts we surely have a right to hope, that in the development of bacteria the key will be found to the origin of life in the world in general. If we could prove that through equivocal generation, one single organism, or living ce]l, shaped itself from unorganized and lifeless material, then' could we con- ceive that the first created beings were in the beginning formed in a similar manner.
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