'There is not one circumstance known at the present day which justifies the assertion that microscopic organisms come into the world without germs or without parents like themselves. Those who maintain the contrary have been the dupes of illusions and of ill-conducted experiments, tainted with errors which they know not how either to perceive or to avoid. Spontaneous generation is a chimera.' Pasteur was not alone in affirming this fixed conviction. With the authority of a judge delivering sentence in court, M. Flourens, permanent Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, pronounced these words before the whole Academy: 'As long as my opinion was not formed I had nothing to say; now it _is_ formed and I can speak. The experiments are decisive. If spontaneous generation be a fact, what is necessary for the production of animalculæ? Air and putrescible liquids. Now Pasteur puts together air and putrescible liquids and nothing is produced. Spontaneous generation, then, has no existence. Those who still doubt have failed to grasp the question.' But some adversaries remained incredulous. When Pasteur had announced the result of his experiments, and brought before the Academy his series of bulbs, Pouchet and Joly declared that if Pasteur had opened his bulbs in the Jura and on the Mer de Glace, they, on their part, had been on the top of the Maladetta, and had proved there the inexactitude of Pasteur's results. Pasteur asked to be judged by the Academy. 'A commission alone,' said he, 'will terminate the debate.' The commission was named, and the position on both sides was clearly stated. 'I affirm,' said Pasteur, 'that everywhere it is possible to take from the midst of the atmosphere a certain quantity of air which contains neither egg nor spore, and which does not produce organisms in putrescible solutions.' On his side, M. Joly wrote: 'If one alone of your bulbs remains unaltered we shall loyally acknowledge our defeat.' Lastly, M. Pouchet, as distinct and positive as M. Pasteur, said: 'I affirm that in whatever place I take a cubic decimeter of air, when this air is placed in contact with a fermentable liquid enclosed in a glass vessel hermetically sealed, the liquid will become filled with living organisms.' This double declaration, which excited at that time all the learned world, took place in the month of January, 1864. Eager to engage in the combat, Pasteur waited impatiently for the order of the Commission that this experiment, which was to decide everything, should be made. But M. Pouchet begged for a postponement, desiring, he said, to wait for the warm season. Pasteur was astonished, but resigned himself to the delay. The Commission and the opponents met on June 15. The Commission announced, 'that, as the whole dispute turned upon one simple fact, one single experiment ought to be undertaken, which alone would close the discussion.'