Note 20 — THE MODES OF ORIGIN OF LOWEST ORGANISMS.

M. Pasteur’s use of this term, in which he is followed by others holding similar opinions, is much to be deprecated. Having said that he had found certain corpuscles which resembled spores of fungi, or ova of infusoria, he subsequently speaks of them as “germs,” and also applies the same name to the reproductive particles of Bacteria, which he merely assumes to be present in the atmosphere. Thus, having only proved that corpuscles resembling spores of some fungi, are to be found in the atmosphere, he subsequently speaks of the presence of a multitude of atmospheric germs as an established fact, without at all prominently pointing out that, so far as the most important of these are concerned—germs of Bacteria—their existence had only been inferred, and not proved.