Remarks on the attributes of the germinal particles of bacteria , in reply to Prof. Tyndall

In a short paper communicated to the Royal Society at the close of last Session Prof. Tyndall did me the honour to criticize certain words reported to have been used by me at a meeting of the Association of Medical Officers of Health in January last. Although I am much indebted to him for the opportunity he has thus afforded me of discussing an important subject before this Society, I cannot refrain from expressing my regret that he should have thought it desirable to quote at length, and thus to place on permanent record in the Society’s Proceedings, the epressions used on the occasion above mentioned. I regret this because ese expressions occur in an abbreviated and incomplete abstract of a astily prepared discourse not intended for publication. As, however, I am well aware that Prof. Tyndall’s purpose in his communication was not to criticize the language, but the erroneous views which the language appeared to him to contain, I shall make no further reference to the quotation, but shall regard it as the purpose of the preent paper, first, to reply to the reasoning embodied in his last communication, and, secondly, to corroborate certain statements previously made y me, to which he has taken exception in the more extended memoir published in the 166th volume of the ‘Philosophical Transactions'.