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Where Great Powers Meet
Where Great Powers Meet
America & China in Southeast Asia

DAV I D SHA M BAU G H

1
 3
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the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

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© Oxford University Press 2021

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above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-​in-​Publication Data

Names: Shambaugh, David L., author.
Title: Where great powers meet : America and China in Southeast Asia / David Shambaugh.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2020. | Includes index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2020022184 (print) | LCCN 2020022185 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190914974 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780190914998 (epub) | ISBN 9780190091132
Subjects: LCSH: Southeast Asia—Foreign relations—21st century. | United States—Foreign relations—
China. | China—Foreign relations—United States. | United States—Foreign relations—Southeast Asia. |
Southeast Asia—Foreign relations—United States. | China—Foreign relations—Southeast Asia. |
Southeast Asia—Foreign relations—China. | United States—Foreign relations—21st century. |
China—Foreign relations—21st century.
Classification: LCC DS525.8 .S674 2020 (print) | LCC DS525.8 (ebook) | DDC 327.59051—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020022184
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020022185

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by LSC Communications, United States of America
 Dedicated with Great Admiration to

Professor Wang Gungwu

Exceptional Scholar, Gentleman, Colleague, Friend, and, Inspiration

 O T H E R B O O K S B Y DAV I D SHA M BAU G H
China’s Leaders: From Mao to Now (2021)
China & the World (edited, 2020)
The China Reader: Rising Power (edited, 2016)
China’s Future (2016)
International Relations of Asia (co-​edited, 2008 and 2014)
China Goes Global: The Partial Power (2013)
Tangled Titans: The United States and China (edited, 2012)
Charting China’s Future: Domestic & International Challenges (edited, 2011)
China’s Communist Party: Atrophy & Adaptation (2008)
China-​Europe Relations: Perceptions, Policies, and Prospects (co-​edited, 2008)
China Watching: Perspectives from Europe, Japan, and the United States
(co-​edited, 2007)
Power Shift: China & Asia’s New Dynamics (edited, 2005)
The Odyssey of China’s Imperial Art Treasures
(co-authored, 2005)
Modernizing China’s Military: Progress, Problems, and Prospects (2002)
Making China Policy: Lessons from the Bush and Clinton Administrations
(co-​edited, 2001)
The Modern Chinese State (edited, 2000)
Is China Unstable? (edited, 2000)
The China Reader: The Reform Era (co-​edited, 1999)
China’s Military Faces the Future (co-​edited, 1999)
Contemporary Taiwan (edited, 1998)
China’s Military in Transition (co-​edited, 1997)
China and Europe: 1949–​1995 (1996)
Greater China: The Next Superpower? (edited, 1995)
Deng Xiaoping: Portrait of a Chinese Statesman (edited, 1995)
Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory & Practice (co-​edited, 1994)
American Studies of Contemporary China (edited, 1993)
Beautiful Imperialist: China Perceives America, 1972–​1990 (1991)
The Making of a Premier: Zhao Ziyang’s Provincial Career (1984)
 Contents

List of Figures  ix
List of Tables  xi
Preface  xiii

1. Sino-​American Competition in Southeast Asia  1

PA RT I . T H E A M E R IC A N E N C OU N T E R
W I T H S O U T H E A S T A SIA

2. America’s Legacies in Southeast Asia  19

3. America’s Contemporary Roles in Southeast Asia  62

PA RT I I . T H E C H I N E SE E N C OU N T E R
W I T H S O U T H E A S T A SIA

4. China’s Legacies in Southeast Asia  107

5. China’s Contemporary Roles in Southeast Asia  136

PA RT I I I . S O U T H E A S T A SIA N E N C OU N T E R S
W I T H A M E R IC A A N D C H I NA

6. Navigating between the Giants: ASEAN’S Agency  179

PA RT I V. T H E F U T U R E O F G R E AT P OW E R
R E L AT IO N S I N S OU T H E A S T A SIA

7. Sino-​American Competition in Southeast Asia: Polarization or

Competitive Coexistence?  241

Acknowledgments  253
Notes 257
Index  309
 List of Figures

0.1 USS Carl Vinson xiii

0.2 The author aboard USS Carl Vinson xiv
0.3 Forest City development xv
0.4 Scale model of Forest City xvi
0.5 The Malacca Straits near Singapore xvii
0.6 Melaka Gateway xviii
2.1 Edmund Roberts 21
2.2 Townsend Harris 21
2.3 Alfred Thayer Mahan 23
2.4 The Olympia leads the Asiatic Squadron in Manila Bay (1898) 24
2.5 General Douglas MacArthur promises: “I shall return” 27
2.6 MacArthur’s “island-​hopping” campaign 28
2.7 French Indochina 32
2.8 Official portrait of President Sukarno (1949) 40
2.9 Robert McNamara 45
2.10 President Ronald Reagan with Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos 52
3.1 President Barack Obama at East Asian Summit 63
3.2 President Donald Trump greets Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte 70
3.3 APCSS National Security Course for Southeast Asia 83
3.4 Indo-​Pacific Command area of operation 85
4.1 Early Southeast Asia and maritime trade routes, third to ninth centuries ce 113
4.2 Indonesian postage stamp commemorating Zheng He voyages 115
4.3 Sun Yat-​sen in Singapore (1906) 119
4.4 Zhou Enlai addresses the Bandung Conference (1955) 125
5.1 Author with Minister-​Counselor Jiang Qin at China’s Mission
to ASEAN, Jakarta 145
5.2 The ASEAN Secretariat 148
5.3 ASEAN Secretariat organizational structure 149
x List of Figures

5.4 Author with ASEAN Secretary-​General Dato Lim Jock Hoi 150
5.5 China’s nine-​dash-​line claims in the South China Sea 153
5.6 A Chinese Island (Subi Reef) in the South China Sea 154
5.7 China Cultural Center in Singapore 155
5.8 ASEAN-​China Center in Beijing 156
5.9 Young Chinese tourists at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore 157
5.10 China-​ASEAN trade, 1996–​2018 166
5.11 Chinese investment in ASEAN, 1996–​2018 168
5.12 Japan vs. China infrastructure investments in Southeast Asia 172
6.1 Aung San Suu Kyi with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama 195
6.2 China’s Bay of Bengal projects 198
6.3 Aung San Suu Kyi meets Xi Jinping 200
6.4 The author with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong 224
7.1 Spectrum of ASEAN states’ relations with the United States and PRC 243
 List of Tables

3.1 US Trade in Goods with Southeast Asia (2016) (Unit = US$ bn.) 78
5.1 China’s Bilateral Diplomatic Relations in Southeast Asia 142
5.2 China’s Diplomatic Partnerships in Southeast Asia 144
5.3 China-​ASEAN Institutions and Mechanisms 146
5.4 Southeast Asian Students in Chinese Universities (2016) 158
5.5 Number of Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, 2010 163
 Preface

Being on the deck of an American aircraft carrier is an awe-​inspiring experience.

In a different way, so too is witnessing a land reclamation construction project
as far as the eye can see. These two experiences that I had within a month during
2017 encapsulated and brought home to me the respective differences between
the United States and China in Southeast Asia.
I first visited the Changi Naval Base in Singapore and went aboard the massive
aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (Fig. 0.1)—​the 101,300-​ton Nimitz-​class flag-
ship of Carrier Strike Group 1 of the US Third Fleet (home-​ported in San Diego
but part of the Pacific Fleet).
With its accompanying carrier battle group of guided missile destroyers,
cruisers, submarines, and supply ships, the Carl Vinson had docked at Changi
following back-​to-​back exercises near North Korea in the Sea of Japan and
Chinese-​occupied islands in the South China Sea—​sending powerful deterrent
signals in each case. Walking the massive deck of the supercarrier past an array of
F-​18 Super Hornet fighters, anti-​submarine warfare planes, electronic attack and

Figure 0.1 USS Carl Vinson

Source: US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Eric Coffer
xiv Preface

early warning aircraft, and helicopters, with more planes and lethal munitions
below deck (Fig. 0.2), and speaking with the dedicated sea and air men and
women onboard was a moving and memorable experience.
The carrier visit was a potent reminder of America’s unrivaled military
power—​which has been projected throughout East Asia and the western Pacific
for more than seven decades. Quietly but firmly, every day of the year, the US
Navy and other military forces contribute to securing and stabilizing this dy-
namic and strategically important region of the world, supporting America’s five
allies and many partners in the region, and giving daily credence to the century-​
long presence of the United States as an Asian and Pacific power.
Subsequently, two weeks later, I crossed the causeway that connects
Singapore to Malaysia and traveled up to the scenic port city of Malacca (Melaka
in Malay). First, 20 miles or so into the southern Malaysian state of Johor, one

Figure 0.2 The author aboard USS Carl Vinson

Source: Author’s photo
Other documents randomly have
different content
The scientific writers of this period had little openness of mind, and
they indulged in scornful and sarcastic comments at the expense of
those who doubted the occurrence of spontaneous generation. In
the seventeenth century Alexander Ross, commenting on Sir Thomas
Brown's doubt as to whether mice may be bred by putrefaction, flays
his antagonist in the following words: "So may we doubt whether in
cheese and timber worms are generated, or if beetles and wasps in
cow-dung, or if butterflies, locusts, shell-fish, snails, eels, and such
life be procreated of putrefied matter, which is to receive the form of
that creature to which it is by formative power disposed. To question
this is to question reason, sense, and experience. If he doubts this,
let him go to Egypt, and there he will find the fields swarming with
mice begot of the mud of Nylus, to the great calamity of the
inhabitants."
II. From Redi to Schwann.—The second period embraces the
experimental tests of Redi (1668), Spallanzani (1775), and Schwann
(1837)—notable achievements that resulted in a verdict for the
adherents to the doctrine of biogenesis. Here the question might
have rested had it not been opened upon theoretical ground by
Pouchet in 1859.
The First Experiments.—The belief in spontaneous generation,
which was so firmly implanted in the minds of naturalists, was
subjected to an experimental test in 1668 by the Italian Redi. It is a
curious circumstance, but one that throws great light upon the
condition of intellectual development of the period, that no one
previous to Redi had attempted to test the truth or falsity of the
theory of spontaneous generation. To approach this question from
the experimental side was to do a great service to science.
The experiments of Redi were simple and homely. He exposed meat
in jars, some of which were left uncovered, some covered with
parchment, and others with fine wire gauze. The meat in all these
vessels became spoiled, and flies, being attracted by the smell of
decaying meat, laid eggs in that which was exposed, and there came
from it a large crop of maggots. The meat which was covered by
parchment also decayed in a similar manner, without the appearance
of maggots within it; and in those vessels covered by wire netting
the flies laid their eggs upon the wire netting. There they hatched,
and the maggots, instead of appearing in the meat, appeared on the
surface of the wire gauze. From this Redi concluded that maggots
arise in decaying meat from the hatching of the eggs of insects, but
inasmuch as these animals had been supposed to arise
spontaneously within the decaying meat, the experiment took the
ground from under that hypothesis.
He made other observations on the generation of insects, but with
acute scientific analysis never allowed his conclusions to run ahead
of his observations. He suggested, however, the probability that all
cases of the supposed production of life from dead matter were due
to the introduction of living germs from without. The good work
begun by Redi was confirmed and extended by Swammerdam
(1637-1681) and Vallisnieri (1661-1730), until the notion of the
spontaneous origin of any forms of life visible to the unaided eye
was banished from the minds of scientific men.
 Fig. 89.—Francesco Redi, 1626-1697.
Redi (Fig. 89) was an Italian physician living in Arentino,
distinguished alike for his attainments in literature and for his
achievements in natural science. He was medical adviser to two of
the grand dukes of Tuscany, and a member of the Academy of
Crusca. Poetry as well as other literary compositions shared his time
with scientific occupations. His collected works, literary, scientific,
and medical, were published in nine octavo volumes in Milan, 1809-
1811. This collection includes his life and letters, and embraces one
volume of sonnets. The book that has been referred to as containing
his experiments was entitled Esperienze Intorno Alla Generazione
Degl'Insetti, and first saw the light in quarto form in Florence in
1668. It went through five editions in twenty years. Some of the
volumes were translated into Latin, and were published in miniature,
making books not more than four inches high. Huxley says: "The
extreme simplicity of his experiments, and the clearness of his
arguments, gained for his views and for their consequences almost
universal acceptance."
New Form of the Question.—The question of the spontaneous
generation of life was soon to take on a new aspect. Seven years
after the experiments of Redi, Leeuwenhoek made known a new
world of microscopic organisms—the infusoria—and, as we have
seen, he discovered, in 1687, those still minuter forms, the bacteria.
Strictly speaking, the bacteria, on account of their extreme
minuteness, were lost sight of, but spontaneous generation was
evoked to account for the birth of all microscopic organisms, and the
question circled mainly around the infusorial animalcula. While the
belief in the spontaneous generation of life among forms visible to
the unaided eye had been surrendered, nevertheless doubts were
entertained as to the origin of microscopic organisms, and it was
now asserted that here were found the beginnings of life—the place
where inorganic material was changed through natural agencies into
organized beings microscopic in size.
More than seventy years elapsed before the matter was again
subjected to experimental tests. Then Needham, using the method
of Redi, began to experiment on the production of microscopic
animalcula. In many of his experiments he was associated with
Buffon, the great French naturalist, who had a theory of organic
molecules that he wished to sustain. Needham (1713-1784), a priest
of the Catholic faith, was an Englishman living on the Continent; he
was for many years director of the Academy of Maria Theresa at
Brussels. He engaged in scientific investigations in connection with
his work of teaching. The results of Needham's first experiments
were published in 1748. These experiments were conducted by
extracting the juices of meat by boiling; by then enclosing the juices
in vials, the latter being carefully corked and sealed with mastic; by
subjecting the sealed bottles, finally, to heat, and setting them away
to cool. In due course of time, the fluids thus treated became
infected with microscopic life, and, inasmuch as Needham believed
that he had killed all living germs by repeated heating, he concluded
that the living forms had been produced by spontaneous generation.
Spallanzani.—The epoch-making researches of Spallanzani, a
fellow-countryman of Redi, were needed to point out the error in
Needham's conclusions. Spallanzani (Fig. 90) was one of the most
eminent men of his time. He was educated for the church, and,
therefore, he is usually known under the title of Abbé Spallanzani.
He did not, however, actively engage in his churchly offices, but,
following an innate love of natural science and of investigation,
devoted himself to experiments and researches and to teaching. He
was first a professor at Bologna, and afterward at the University of
Pavia. He made many additions to knowledge of the development
and the physiology of organisms, and he was the first to make use
of glass flasks in the experimental study of the question of the
spontaneous generation of life.
Spallanzani thought that the experiments of Needham had not been
conducted with sufficient care and precision; accordingly, he made
use of glass flasks with slender necks which could be hermetically
sealed after the nutrient fluids had been introduced. The vials which
Needham used as containers were simply corked and sealed with
mastic, and it was by no means certain that the entrance of air after
heating had been prevented; moreover, no record was made by
Needham of the temperature and the time of heating to which his
bottles and fluids had been subjected.

Fig. 90.—Lazzaro Spallanzani, 1729-1799.

Spallanzani took nutrient fluids, such as the juices of vegetables and
meats which had been extracted by boiling, placed them in clear
flasks, the necks of which were hermetically sealed in flame, and
afterward immersed them in boiling water for three-quarters of an
hour, in order to destroy all germs that might be contained in them.
The organic infusions of Spallanzani remained free from change. It
was then, as now, a well-known fact that organic fluids, when
exposed to air, quickly decompose and acquire a bad smell; they
soon become turbid, and in a little time a scum is formed upon their
surface. The fluids in the flasks of Spallanzani remained of the same
appearance and consistency as when they were first introduced into
the vessel, and the obvious conclusion was drawn that microscopic
life is not spontaneously formed within nutrient fluids.
"But Needham was not satisfied with these results, and with a show
of reason maintained that such a prolonged boiling would destroy
not only germs, but the germinative, or, as he called it, the
'vegetative force' of the infusion itself. Spallanzani easily disposed of
this objection by showing that when the infusions were again
exposed to the air, no matter how severe or prolonged the boiling to
which they had been subjected, the infusoria reappeared. His
experiments were made in great numbers, with different infusions,
and were conducted with the utmost care and precision" (Dunster).
It must be confessed, however, that the success of his experiments
was owing largely to the purity of the air in which he worked, the
more resistant atmospheric germs were not present: as Wyman
showed, long afterward, that germs may retain their vitality after
being subjected for several hours to the temperature of boiling
water.
Schulze and Schwann.—The results of Spallanzani's experiments
were published in 1775, and were generally regarded by the
naturalists of that period as answering in the negative the question
of the spontaneous generation of life. Doubts began to arise as to
the conclusive nature of Spallanzani's experiments, on account of
the discovery of the part which oxygen plays in reference to life. The
discovery of oxygen, one of the greatest scientific events of the
eighteenth century, was made by Priestley in 1774. It was soon
shown that oxygen is necessary to all forms of life, and the question
was raised: Had not the boiling of the closed flasks changed the
oxygen so that through the heating process it had lost its life-giving
properties? This doubt grew until a reëxamination of the question of
spontaneous generation became necessary under conditions in
which the nutrient fluids were made accessible to the outside air.
In 1836 Franz Schulze, and, in the following year, Theodor Schwann,
devised experiments to test the question on this new basis. Schwann
is known to us as the founder of the cell-theory, but we must not
confuse Schulze with Max Schultze, who established the protoplasm
doctrine. In the experiments of Schulze, a flask was arranged
containing nutrient fluids, with a large cork perforated and closely
fitted with bent glass tubes connected on one side with a series of
bulbs in which were placed sulphuric acid and other chemical
substances. An aspirator was attached to the other end of this
system, and air from the outside was sucked into the flask, passing
on its way through the bulbs containing the chemical substances.
The purpose of this was to remove the floating germs that exist in
the air, while the air itself was shown, through other experiments by
Schwann, to remain unchanged.
Tyndall says in reference to these experiments: "Here again the
success of Schulze was due to his working in comparatively pure air,
but even in such air his experiment is a risky one. Germs will pass
unwetted and unscathed through sulphuric acid unless the most
special care is taken to detain them. I have repeatedly failed, by
repeating Schulze's experiments, to obtain his results. Others have
failed likewise. The air passes in bubbles through the bulbs, and to
render the method secure, the passage of the air must be so slow as
to cause the whole of its floating matter, even to the very core of
each bubble, to touch the surrounding fluid. But if this precaution be
observed water will be found quite as effectual as sulphuric acid."
Schwann's apparatus was similar in construction, except that the
bent tube on one side was surrounded by a jacket of metal and was
subjected to a very high temperature while the air was being drawn
through it, the effect being to kill any floating germs that might exist
in the air. Great care was taken by both experimenters to have their
flasks and fluids thoroughly sterilized, and the results of their
experiments were to show that the nutrient fluids remained
uncontaminated.
These experiments proved that there is something in the
atmosphere which, unless it be removed or rendered inactive,
produces life within nutrient fluids, but whether this something is
solid, fluid, or gaseous did not appear from the experiments. It
remained for Helmholtz to show, as he did in 1843, that this
something will not pass through a moist animal membrane, and is
therefore a solid. The results so far reached satisfied the minds of
scientific men, and the question of the spontaneous origin of life was
regarded as having been finally set at rest.
III. The Third Period. Pouchet.—We come now to consider the
third historical phase of this question. Although it had apparently
been set at rest, the question was unexpectedly opened again in
1859 by the Frenchman Pouchet, the director of the Natural History
Museum of Rouen. The frame of mind which Pouchet brought to his
experimental investigations was fatal to unbiased conclusions:
"When, by meditation," he says, in the opening paragraph of his
book on Heterogenesis, "it was evident to me that spontaneous
generation was one of the means employed by nature for the
production of living beings, I applied myself to discover by what
means one could place these phenomena in evidence." Although he
experimented, his case was prejudiced by metaphysical
considerations. He repeated the experiments of previous observers
with opposite results, and therefore he declared his belief in the
falsity of the conclusions of Spallanzani, Schulze, and Schwann.
He planned and executed one experiment which he supposed was
conclusive. In introducing it he said: "The opponents of spontaneous
generation assert that the germs of microscopic organisms exist in
the air, which transports them to a distance. What, then, will these
opponents say if I succeed in introducing the generation of living
organisms, while substituting artificial air for that of the
atmosphere?"
He filled a flask with boiling water and sealed it with great care. This
he inverted over a bath of mercury, thrusting the neck of the bottle
into the mercury. When the water was cooled, he opened the neck
of the bottle, still under the mercury, and connected it with a
chemical retort containing the constituents for the liberation of
oxygen. By heating the retort, oxygen was driven off from the
chemical salts contained in it, and being a gas, the oxygen passed
through the connecting tube and bubbled up through the water of
the bottle, accumulating at the upper surface, and by pressure
forcing water out of the bottle. After the bottle was about half filled
with oxygen imprisoned above the water, Pouchet took a pinch of
hay that had been heated to a high temperature in an oven, and
with a pair of sterilized forceps pushed it underneath the mercury
and into the mouth of the bottle, where the hay floated into the
water and distributed itself.
He thus produced a hay infusion in contact with pure oxygen, and
after a few days this hay infusion was seen to be cloudy and turbid.
It was, in fact, swarming with micro-organisms. Pouchet pointed
with triumphant spirit to the apparently rigorous way in which his
experiment had been carried on: "Where," said he, "does this life
come from? It can not come from the water which had been boiled,
destroying all living germs that may have existed in it. It can not
come from the oxygen which was produced at the temperature of
incandescence. It can not have been carried in the hay, which had
been heated for a long period before being introduced into the
water." He declared that this life was, therefore, of spontaneous
origin.
The controversy now revived, and waxed warm under the insistence
of Pouchet and his adherents. Finally the Academy of Sciences, in
the hope of bringing it to a conclusion, appointed a committee to
decide upon conflicting claims.
Pasteur.—Pasteur had entered into the investigation of the subject
about 1860, and, with wonderful skill and acumen, was removing all
possible grounds for the conclusions of Pouchet and his followers. In
1864, before a brilliant audience at the Sorbonne, he repeated the
experiment outlined above and showed the source of error. In a
darkened room he directed a bright beam of light upon the
apparatus, and his auditors could see in the intense illumination that
the surface of the mercury was covered with dust particles. Pasteur
then showed that when a body was plunged beneath the mercury,
some of these surface granules were carried with it. In this striking
manner Pasteur demonstrated that particles from the outside had
been introduced into the bottle of water by Pouchet. This, however,
is probably not the only source of the organisms which were
developed in Pouchet's infusions. It is now known that a hay infusion
is very difficult to sterilize by heat, and it is altogether likely that the
infusions used by Pouchet were not completely sterilized.
The investigation of the question requires more critical methods than
was at first supposed, and more factors enter into its solution than
were realized by Spallanzani and Schwann.
Pasteur demonstrated that the floating particles of the air contained
living germs, by catching them in the meshes of gun cotton, and
then dissolving the cotton with ether and examining the residue. He
also showed that sterilized organic fluids could be protected by a
plug of cotton sufficiently porous to admit of exchange of air, but
matted closely enough to entangle the floating particles. He showed
also that many of the minute organisms do not require free oxygen
for their life processes, but are able to take the oxygen by chemical
decomposition which they themselves produce from the nutrient
fluids.
Jeffries Wyman, of Harvard College, demonstrated that some germs
are so resistant to heat that they retain their vitality after several
hours of boiling. This fact probably accounts for the difference in the
results that have been obtained by experimenters. The germs in a
resting-stage are surrounded by a thick protective coat of cellulose,
which becomes softened and broken when they germinate. On this
account more recent experimenters have adopted a method of
discontinuous heating of the nutrient fluid that is being tested. The
fluids are boiled at intervals, so that the unusually resistant germs
are killed after the coating has been rendered soft, and when they
are about to germinate.
After the brilliant researches of Pasteur, the question of spontaneous
germination was once again regarded as having been answered in
the negative; and so it is regarded to-day by the scientific world.
Nevertheless, attempts have been made from time to time, as by
Bastian, of England, in 1872, to revive it on the old lines.

Fig. 91.—Apparatus of Tyndall for Experimenting on Spontaneous

Generation.
Tyndall.—John Tyndall (1820-1893), the distinguished physicist, of
London, published, in 1876, the results of his experiments on this
question, which, for clearness and ingenuity, have never been
surpassed. For some time he had been experimenting in the domain
of physics with what he called optically pure air. It was necessary for
him to have air from which the floating particles had been sifted,
and it occurred to him that he might expose nutrient fluids to this
optically pure air, and thus very nicely test the question of the
spontaneous origin of life within them.
He devised a box, or chamber, as shown in Fig. 91, having in front a
large glass window, two small glass windows on the ends, and in the
back a little air-tight trap-door. Through the bottom of this box he
had fitted ordinary test tubes of the chemist, with an air-tight
surrounding, and on the top he had inserted some coiled glass
tubes, which were open at both ends and allowed the passage of air
in and out of the box through the tortuous passage. In the middle of
the top of the box was a round piece of rubber. When he perforated
this with a pinhole the elasticity of the rubber would close the hole
again, but it would also admit of the passage through it of a small
glass tube, such as is called by chemists a "thistle tube." The interior
of this box was painted with a sticky substance like glycerin, in order
to retain the floating particles of the air when they had once settled
upon its sides and bottom. The apparatus having been prepared in
this way, was allowed to stand, and the floating particles settled by
their own weight upon the bottom and sides of the box, so that day
by day the number of floating particles became reduced, and finally
all of them came to rest.
The air now differed from the outside air in having been purified of
all of its floating particles. In order to test the complete
disappearance of all particles. Tyndall threw a beam of light into the
air chamber. He kept his eye in the darkness for some time in order
to increase its sensitiveness; then, looking from the front through
the glass into the box, he was able to see any particles that might
be floating there. The floating particles would be brightly illuminated
by the condensed light that he directed into the chamber, and would
become visible. When there was complete darkness within the
chamber, the course of the beam of light was apparent in the room
as it came up to the box and as it left the box, being seen on
account of the reflection from the floating particles in the air, but it
could not be seen at all within the box. When this condition was
reached, Tyndall had what he called optically pure air, and he was
now ready to introduce the nutrient fluids into his test tubes.
Through a thistle tube, thrust into the rubber diaphragm above, he
was able to bring the mouth of the tube successively over the
different test tubes, and, by pouring different kinds of fluids from
above, he was able to introduce these into different test tubes.
These fluids consisted of mutton broth, of turnip-broth, and other
decoctions of animal and vegetable matter. It is to be noted that the
test tubes were not corked and consequently that the fluids
contained within them were freely exposed to the optically pure air
within the chamber.
The box was now lifted, and the ends of the tubes extending below
it were thrust into a bath of boiling oil. This set the fluids into a state
of boiling, the purpose being to kill any germs of life that might be
accidentally introduced into them in the course of their conveyance
to the test tubes. These fluids, exposed freely to the optically pure
air within this chamber, then remained indefinitely free from micro-
organisms, thus demonstrating that putrescible fluids may be freely
exposed to air from which the floating particles have been removed,
and not show a trace either of spoiling or of organic life within them.
It might be objected that the continued boiling of the fluids had
produced chemical changes inimical to life, or in some way
destroyed their life-supporting properties; but after they had
remained for months in a perfectly clear state, Tyndall opened the
little door in the back of the box and closed it at once, thereby
admitting some of the floating particles from the outside air. Within a
few days' time the fluids which previously had remained
uncontaminated were spoiling and teeming with living organisms.
These experiments showed that under the conditions of the
experiments no spontaneous origin of life takes place. But while we
must regard the hypothesis of spontaneous generation as thus
having been disproved on an experimental basis, it is still adhered to
from the theoretical standpoint by many naturalists; and there are
also many who think that life arises spontaneously at the present
time in ultra-microscopic particles. Weismann's hypothetical
"biophors," too minute for microscopic observation, are supposed to
arise by spontaneous generation. This phase of the question,
however, not being amenable to scientific tests, is theoretical, and
therefore, so far as the evidence goes, we may safely say that the
spontaneous origin of life under present conditions is unknown.
Practical Applications.—There are, of course, numerous practical
applications of the discovery that the spoiling of putrescible fluids is
due to floating germs that have been introduced from the air. One
illustration is the canning of meats and fruits, where the object is, by
heating, to destroy all living germs that are distributed through the
substance, and then, by canning, to keep them out. When this is
entirely successful, the preserved vegetables and meats go
uncontaminated. One of the most important and practical
applications came in the recognition (1867) by the English surgeon
Lister that wounds during surgical operations are poisoned by
floating particles in the air or by germs clinging to instruments or the
skin of the operator, and that to render all appliances sterile and, by
antiseptic dressings, completely to prevent the entrance of these
bacteria into surgical wounds, insures their being clean and healthy.
This led to antiseptic surgery, with which the name of Lister is
indissolubly connected.
The Germ-Theory of Disease
The germ-theory of disease is another question of general bearing,
and it will be dealt with briefly here.
After the discovery of bacteria by Leeuwenhoek, in 1687, some
medical men of the time suggested the theory that contagious
diseases were due to microscopic forms of life that passed from the
sick to the well. This doctrine of contagium vivum, when first
promulgated, took no firm root, and gradually disappeared. It was
not revived until about 1840. If we attempt briefly to sketch the rise
of the germ-theory of disease, we come, then, first to the year 1837,
when the Italian Bassi investigated the disease of silkworms, and
showed that the transmission of that disease was the result of the
passing of minute glittering particles from the sick to the healthy.
Upon the basis of Bassi's observation, the distinguished anatomist
Henle, in 1840, expounded the theory that all contagious diseases
are due to microscopic germs.
The matter, however, did not receive experimental proof until 1877,
when Pasteur and Robert Koch showed the direct connection
between certain microscopic filaments and the disease of splenic
fever, which attacks sheep and other cattle. Koch was able to get
some of these minute filaments under the microscope, and to trace
upon a warm stage the different steps in their germination. He saw
the spores bud and produce filamentous forms. He was able to
cultivate these upon a nutrient substance, gelatin, and in this way to
obtain a pure culture of the organism, which is designated under the
term anthrax. He inoculated mice with the pure culture of anthrax
germs, and produced splenic fever in the inoculated forms. He was
able to do this through several generations of mice. In the same
year Pasteur showed a similar connection between splenic fever and
the anthrax.
This demonstration of the actual connection between anthrax and
splenic fever formed the first secure foundation of the germ-theory
of disease, and this department of investigation became an
important one in general biology. The pioneer workers who reached
the highest position in the development of this knowledge are
Pasteur, Koch, and Lister.

Fig. 92.—Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) and his Granddaughter.

Veneration of Pasteur.—Pasteur is one of the most conspicuous
figures of the nineteenth century. The veneration in which he is held
by the French people is shown in the result of a popular vote, taken
in 1907, by which he was placed at the head of all their notable
men. One of the most widely circulated of the French journals—the
Petit Parisien—appealed to its readers all over the country to vote
upon the relative prominence of great Frenchmen of the last century.
Pasteur was the winner of this interesting contest, having received
1,338,425 votes of the fifteen millions cast, and ranking above Victor
Hugo, who stood second in popular estimation, by more than one
hundred thousand votes. This enviable recognition was won, not by
spectacular achievements in arms or in politics, but by indefatigable
industry in the quiet pursuit of those scientific researches that have
resulted in so much good to the human race.
Personal Qualities.—He should be known also from the side of his
human qualities. He was devotedly attached to his family, enjoying
the close sympathy and assistance of his wife and his daughter in his
scientific struggles, a circumstance that aided much in ameliorating
the severity of his labors. His labors, indeed, overstrained his
powers, so that he was smitten by paralysis in 1868, at the age of
forty-six, but with splendid courage he overcame this handicap, and
continued his unremitting work until his death in 1895.
The portrait of Pasteur with his granddaughter (Fig. 92) gives a
touch of personal interest to the investigator and the contestant
upon the field of science. His strong face shows dignity of purpose
and the grim determination which led to colossal attainments; at the
same time it is mellowed by gentle affection, and contrasts finely
with the trusting expression of the younger face.
Pasteur was born of humble parents in Dôle in the Jura, on
December the 27th, 1822. His father was a tanner, but withal, a man
of fine character and stern experience, as is "shown by the fact that
he had fought in the legions of the First Empire and been decorated
on the field of battle by Napoleon." The filial devotion of Pasteur and
his justifiable pride in his father's military service are shown in the
dedication of his book, Studies on Fermentation, published in 1876:
 "To the memory of my Father,
Formerly a soldier under the First Empire, and Knight of
the Legion of Honor.
The longer I live, the better do I understand the kindness
of thy heart and the superiority of thy judgment.
The efforts which I have devoted to these studies and to
those which have preceded them are the fruits of thy
example and of thy counsel.
Desiring to honor these precious recollections, I dedicate
this book to thy memory."
When Pasteur was an infant of two years his parents removed to the
town of Arbois, and here he spent his youth and received his early
education. After a period of indifference to study, during which he
employed his time chiefly in fishing and sketching, he settled down
to work, and, thereafter, showed boundless energy and enthusiasm.
Pasteur, whom we are to consider as a biologist, won his first
scientific recognition at the age of twenty-five, in chemistry and
molecular physics. He showed that crystals of certain tartrates,
identical in chemical composition, acted differently upon polarized
light transmitted through them. He concluded that the differences in
optical properties depended upon a different arrangement of the
molecules; and these studies opened the fascinating field of
molecular physics and physical chemistry.
Pasteur might have remained in this field of investigation, but his
destiny was different. As Tyndall remarked, "In the investigation of
microscopic organisms—the 'infinitely little,' as Pasteur loved to call
them—and their doings in this, our world, Pasteur found his true
vocation. In this broad field it has been his good fortune to alight
upon a crowd of connected problems of the highest public and
scientific interest, ripe for solution, and requiring for their successful
treatment the precise culture and capacities which he has brought to
bear upon them."
In 1857 Pasteur went to Paris as director of scientific studies in the
École Normale, having previously been a professor in Strasburg and
in Lille. From this time on his energies became more and more
absorbed in problems of a biological nature. It was a momentous
year (1857) in the annals of bacteriology when Pasteur brought
convincing proof that fermentation (then considered chemical in its
nature) was due to the growth of organic life. Again in 1860 he
demonstrated that both lactic (the souring of milk) and alcoholic
fermentation are due to the growth of microscopic organisms, and
by these researches he developed the province of biology that has
expanded into the science of bacteriology.
After Pasteur entered the path of investigation of microbes his
progress was by ascending steps; each new problem the solution of
which he undertook seemed of greater importance than the one just
conquered. He was led from the discovery of microbe action to the
application of his knowledge to the production of antitoxins. In all
this he did not follow his own inclinations so much as his sense of a
call to service. In fact, he always retained a regret that he was not
permitted to perfect his researches on crystallography. At the age of
seventy he said of himself: "If I have a regret, it is that I did not
follow that route, less rude it seems to me, and which would have
led, I am convinced, to wonderful discoveries. A sudden turn threw
me into the study of fermentation, fermentations set me at diseases,
but I am still inconsolable to think that I have never had the time to
go back to my old subject" (Tarbell).
Although the results of his combined researches form a succession
of triumphs, every point of his doctrines was the subject of fierce
controversy; no investigations ever met with more determined
opposition, no investigator ever fought more strenuously for the
establishment of each new truth.
He went from the study of the diseases of wines (1865) to the
investigation (1865-1868) of the silkworm plague which had well-
nigh crushed the silk industry of his country. The result was the
saving of millions of francs annually to the people of France.
His Supreme Service.—He then entered upon his chief services to
humanity—the application of his discoveries to the cure and
prevention of diseases. By making a succession of pure cultures of a
disease-producing virus, he was able to attenuate it to any desired
degree, and thereby to create a vaccinating form of the virus
capable of causing a mild affection of the disease. The injection of
this attenuated virus secured immunity from future attacks. The
efficacy of this form of inoculation was first proved for the disease of
fowl cholera, and then came the clear demonstration (1881) that the
vaccine was effective against the splenic fever of cattle. Crowning
this series of discoveries came the use of inoculation (1885) to
prevent the development of hydrophobia in one bitten by a mad
dog.
The Pasteur Institute.—The time had now come for the
establishment of an institute, not alone for the treatment of
hydrophobia, but also for the scientific study of means to control
other diseases, as diphtheria, typhoid, tuberculosis, etc. A movement
was set on foot for a popular subscription to meet this need. The
response to this call on the part of the common people was
gratifying. "The extraordinary enthusiasm which accompanied the
foundation of this great institution has certainly not been equaled in
our time. Considerable sums of money were subscribed in foreign
countries, while contributions poured in from every part of France.
Even the inhabitants of obscure little towns and villages organized
fêtes, and clubbed together to send their small gifts" (Franckland).
The total sum subscribed on the date of the opening ceremony
amounted to 3,586,680 francs.
The institute was formally opened on November 14th, 1888, with
impressive ceremonies presided over by the President of the
Republic of France. The establishment of this institute was an event
of great scientific importance. Here, within the first decade of its
existence, were successfully treated more than twenty thousand
cases of hydrophobia. Here has been discovered by Roux the
antitoxin for diphtheria, and here have been established the
principles of inoculation against the bubonic plague, against lockjaw,
against tuberculosis and other maladies, and of the recent microbe
inoculations of Wright of London. More than thirty "Pasteur
institutes," with aims similar to the parent institution, have been
established in different parts of the civilized world.
Pasteur died in 1895, greatly honored by the whole world. On
Saturday, October 5th of that year, a national funeral was conducted
in the Church of Notre-Dame, which was attended by the
representatives of the state and of numerous scientific bodies and
learned societies.
Koch.—Robert Koch (Fig. 93) was born in 1843, and is still living,
engaged actively in work in the University of Berlin. His studies have
been mainly those of a medical man, and have been crowned with
remarkable success. In 1881 he discovered the germ of tuberculosis,
in 1883 the germ that produces Asiatic cholera, and since that time
his name has been connected with a number of remarkable
discoveries that are of continuous practical application in the science
of medicine.