I. Note on the origin of Bacteria , and on their relation to the process of putrefaction

In his now celebrated memoir of 1862, M. Pasteur asserted and claimed to have proved (1) that the putrefaction occurring in certain previously boiled fluids after exposure to the air was due to the contamination of the fluids byBacteria , or their germs, which had before existed in the atmosphere, and (2) that all the organisms found in such fluids have been derived more or less immediately from the reproduction of germs which formerly existed in the atmosphere. The results of a long series of experiments have convinced me that both these views are untenable.