The theory of atmospheric germs / by Arthur Ernest Sansom.

  • Sansom, Arthur Ernest, 1839-1907.
Date:
[1871]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The theory of atmospheric germs / by Arthur Ernest Sansom. 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.

    1/18 (page 153)
    / 1871-] The Theory of Atmospheric Germs, £) I53 altogether failed to fulfil the expectations which the originators of the College of Chemistry entertained when they placed the new institution under my direction, it is due to the powerful influence which the friendship of Sir James exercised upon my career at that most important period of my life. Postscript. Having in the preceding sketch pointed out the early exertions which Sir James Clark made to procure a Government grant for the College of Chemistry, it is certainly not without interest to contemplate that at present a Royal Commission is sitting charged to inquire in what manner science c^.\£pH3est~^Tdrtwted in England by the grant of Governn&iirt subventiorl, 'and that the author of this sketch, whilst writing it, has received from that Commission an invitation to proceed to $«gland for the purpose of giving evidence on the mode in twHch scientific institutions are supported by, Government in Germany. II. THE THEORY OF ATMOSPHERIC GERMS. By Arthur Ernest Sansom, M.D., Member of the Royal College of Physicians. NE of the most celebrated of the Deputies lately com- menced a speech before the Austrian Reichsrath with the words :—“The great question before us is,—Is Charles Darwin right or wrong?” Probably this sounded strangely, for the world is not accustomed to be told sud- denly that the solution of a scientific problem is material to its position or its progress. There is another great question which has been recently debated with a considerable amount of warmth, and has seemed to evoke a very considerable interest. Mighty issues are involved in it, and yet its problems are interwoven with the most ordinary processes of domestic life. It has to do with the most abstruse speculations as to the origin of living things in the kingdom of nature. It concerns the art of the brewer and the maker of wine. It is linked with the processes which preserve food from decom- position and sewage matters from being hurtful to mankind; with the treatment of wounds and with the arrest and pre- vention of pestilence. Complex in its relations, the question can nevertheless be curtly stated—Do living things of necessity spring from pre-existing living things or no ? VOL. VIII. (O.S.)—VOL. I. (N.S.) X