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John Tyndall and the Spontaneous

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John Tyndall and the Spontaneous Back in the 1870s, opinion was divided on whether microbes could arise in growth media from nowhere. Gavin Thomas describes how this theory was disproved by an Irish physicist and science popularizer called John Tyndall. f, on a sunny day, you sit near a and lectures. For some of his experi- ᭡ The summit of Mont Blanc, French Alps. window in a darkened room and ments on light and gases he needed to O.T. Chamonix No. 120 / M. Colonel cleanse the air of particles and so follow a beam of light streaming in, ᭢ Fig. 1. Carte de visite of John Tyndall taken you can observe particles of dust developed a completely novel way to during his lecturing tour of the USA in Microbes in the air: reflecting the sunlight into your eye. assay the purity of air. ‘The eye being kept 1872–1873. Author’s collection The microbial content of these small sensitive by darkness’, Tyndall reported, Ipieces of ‘floating matter’ is well known ‘a concentrated beam of light was found to to many of us, which is why we work by be a most searching test for suspended a Bunsen flame. However, the develop- matter – a test indeed indefinitely more John Tyndall and ment of methods to ‘see’ the particulate searching than that furnished by the most contents of the air and analyse its powerful microscope’. Using his new constituents helped resolve some piece of equipment, which relied on important issues of late 19th century observing light scattered by dust biological science. particles, Tyndall quickly made a series the spontaneous of important observations on the John Tyndall properties of the ‘floating matter’ of air. The man who exploited light and dust to advance biology was not in fact a Dust and disease biologist, but rather an Irish physicist He presented this work in January 1870 generation and science popularizer called John in a lecture to the Royal Institution Tyndall (Fig. 1). He worked at the Royal entitled Dust and disease. Here, he first Institution in London and had pub- reported experiments demonstrating lished scientific works on heat, light that dust was mainly composed of debate and sound, as well as popular books organic matter, something he had not 164 microbiology today nov 05 microbiology today nov 05 165 2 anticipated. He then demonstrated, tion, so he decided to address this topic provided him with an annual escape from the rigours of experiments became contaminated and he reasoned that using his light scattering assay, that air directly, becoming embroiled in a science, and he quickly became an accomplished mount- spores from the hay were now in the air of his lab and were able filtered by cotton wool was ‘optically debate which was to occupy him for aineer, climbing Mont Blanc in 1857 and later being the first to to survive the heating process he used to sterilize his infusions. empty’, meaning that the path of the the next 7 years of his life. climb the Weisshorn in 1861. This was not without its dangers It is of interest to note that this had been observed pre- beam appeared black, which he also and in 1858 when solo climbing Monte Rosa he dropped his viously by Bastian, who had used these data to support his saw with air that had been left to settle Tyndall’s chamber ice axe at the summit and had to watch it slide away towards ideas of spontaneous generation. Now, however, Tyndall had for long periods of time in a sealed The most famous piece of apparatus the mountain edge. The descent would have been impossible a potential explanation and investigated the heat resistance of glass chamber. Finally, he reported developed by Tyndall during this without the axe, but fortunately it stopped before reaching the spores in more detail. After a few months of work he discover- that his own breath, especially the end period was a wooden chamber that was drop and Tyndall was able to make his descent successfully. ed that a series of boiling and cooling steps in the treatment of of his expiration, was remarkably free of key in demonstrating the causal link Tyndall took a series of ‘infusions’ with him to the Alps which his growth medium could completely prevent any growth in floating matter. He had recently been between the presence of dust and the he had prepared at the Royal Institution. These were glass his flasks. By heating and cooling the spores were germinating taken by Lister’s methods for antiseptic subsequent growth of microbes in flasks shaped as in Fig. 3 containing liquid broth which had and were then being killed during the next exposure to boil- surgery, which argued that infection liquid broth (Fig. 2). The chamber had been boiled and then sealed by heating the glass and drawing ing. This process of fractional sterilization, sometimes known spreads through the air due to the a glass front, small side windows and a out the end until it was fused. He took about 50 of these flasks, as Tyndallization, is still used today to sterilize certain diag- microbes contained within it and view- back door. A pair of thin glass tubes was which contained infusions of beef, mutton, turnip and cucum- nostic growth media that cannot tolerate autoclaving. ed his data as entirely consistent with inserted in the top, bent in a way to pre- ber, to perform a series of experiments one summer while By 1880 the debate was effectively over due to the hard these. Hence, Tyndall extrapolated his vent passage of dust from the outside. staying at his cottage on the Bel Alp. Tyndall had demonstrated work of Tyndall and others, including the Englishmen conclusions to make a strong state- Test tubes were sealed into the base, that upon opening these flasks there was a brief inrush of air, William Dallinger and John Drysdale, who had demonstrated ment in favour of the germ theory of open to the chamber above, and there but that the shape of the neck prevented any further entry of that Bastian’s experiments could be explained simply by disease; an idea which had not yet was a movable pipette that pierced the particulate matter. He opened half of them in a hayloft near his improved knowledge of microbiology and did not need to found acceptance with the majority of top and could be used to add medium cottage and the other half on a ledge overlooking the Aletsch imply continual de novo creation. Spontaneous generation the English medical profession. to the flasks. The walls of the chamber glacier, making sure he was himself downwind of the flasks was removed from the frontlines of science into the history Following Tyndall’s 1870 lecture, were coated in glycerine, which was and using a spirit lamp to sterilize the steel pliers that were used books – all started by a chance observation made while there was much criticism of his con- effective at binding and holding the to break off the top of the flask. Tyndall then incubated all his pursuing a completely different field of science. clusions from prominent physicians dust particles. Tyndall would seal these opened flasks over his kitchen stove for 3 days and found that who believed that ideas relating to the chambers and shine light through the all but two of the flasks opened in the hayloft were ‘invaded Gavin H. Thomas nature of disease ‘pertain most to the side windows to follow the settling of by organisms’, while not one opened in the ‘cleaner vivifying Lecturer in Molecular Microbiology, Department of 3 biologist and the physician’ and that a dust particles until they had vanished mountain air’ had any growth. Tyndall hence demonstrated Biology, Area 10, University of York, PO Box 373, York physicist should know better the facts from the beam. Culture medium was that air from the mountain top was largely free from organic YO10 5YW, UK (t 01904 328678; f 01904 328825; of epidemic disease before delving into then added to the test tubes via the material and no life was produced in the flasks, while the flasks e [email protected]) the living world. The pathologist Charl- pipette and a vat of boiling oil was opened in the closed environment of the hayloft, in the ton Bastian confronted Tyndall directly brought up underneath to sterilize presence of an abundance of organic material, almost always Further reading in a series of letters to The Times, playing them. The chamber was then left to see had growth. This particular experiment was a continuation of Fleming, F. (2001). Killing Dragons: The Conquest of the Alps. down the evidence supporting germ if anything would grow in the test an earlier demonstration by Pasteur that air from the Mer de London, New York: Granta Books. theory and discussing his own experi- tubes; Tyndall did hundreds of these Glace was cleaner than that from the town below, but was Strick J. E. (2000). Sparks of Life. Darwinism and the Victorian ments which disagreed with previous experiments with different infusions typical of the many experiments Tyndall performed during the Debates over Spontaneous Generation. Cambridge, London: Harvard work by Pasteur, Lister and the like. where he would see no growth. The 1870s to provide convincing quantitative evidence supporting University Press. Bastian then published a 1,115-page chamber was open to the air, so it could the spread of microbes in the air. Tyndall, J. (1881). Essays on the Floating Matter in the Air in Relation book in 1872 describing many experi- not be argued that some other element to Putrefaction and Infection.
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