82 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



them organisms were found in more or less abun- 

 dance principally Torulae and Bacteria, though 

 a few small Moulds have also been met with. 1 In 

 their examination I at first withdrew some of the 

 light flocculent sediment with a sterilised pipette, 

 and, when taken from the earlier tubes, without 

 finding in such sediment a single organism; but in 

 tubes opened after the fifth week Torula? and also 

 Cocci have sometimes been found in this situation 

 in small quantities. In the examination of each 

 tube, however, after this deposit had been scruti- 

 nised, the centrifuge was used; and then, after 

 almost the whole of the solution had been with- 

 drawn from its tube, the contents of the last two 

 minims were also carefully examined with the 

 microscope. Torulse, single, budding, and in con- 

 nected groups such as are shown in Plate 10, Fig. 

 60, C, were found in varying quantity in different 

 tubes, either alone or associated with Bacteria. 

 In some of the tubes large masses of Bacteria were 



1 1 say " more or less abundance " because there was the 

 same kind of variation here as that to which I have referred 

 in the last section, in the abundance of organisms. Thus in 

 tube No. 187, my note-book says: "Crowds of small ovoid 

 Torulae were found in small groups and singly"; while in No. 

 188, similarly exposed: "Only solitary Torulae, comparatively 

 scarce, and no groups were seen." There was a similar small 

 quantity of organisms in tube No. 190. 



