TYNDALL, John (1820-93). Essays on the Floating-Matter of the Air in Relation to Putrefaction and Infection.

TYNDALL, John (1820-93).  Essays on the Floating-Matter of the Air in Relation to Putrefaction and Infection. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1881. 8vo (196 x 125mm). Half title, wood-engraved illustrations, 2-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end (very faint mainly marginal spotting and browning). Original plum cloth decorated in blind, spine lettered in gilt (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: M. Atkinson Adam (stamp on front free endpaper); R. Vallentin, 1881 (signature at head of title); library number stamped in gilt at foot of spine, with residue of library label; from the Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune. FIRST EDITION. Garrison-Morton 2495: "Tyndall interested himself in atmospheric germs and dust. His experiments on sterilization by heat led him to the discovery in 1877 of fractional sterilization (Tyndallization). His work on the subject is included in [Essays on the Floating-Matter] in which he also described the bactericidal effects of moulds. The researches of Tyndall, even more than those of Pasteur, dealt the final blow to the doctrine of spontaneous generation; they were fundamental for the progress of bacteriology."