70 ORIGIN OF LOWEST ORGANISMS. 



turbidity was well marked, and when the fluid was 

 examined microscopically it was found to contain an 

 abundance of very languid Bacteria and Vibriones. On 

 opening the flask there was an outrush of very foetid 

 gas, and the reaction of the fluid was acid.* 



//. Fluid in a Flask having a Neck two feet long, bent at rig/it 

 angles shortly above the bulb, and provided with a firm 

 Plug of Cotton- Wool twelve inches in length. 



No. X. Urine remained quite bright and clear during the 

 fifteen days in which it was kept under observation in 

 the water-bath, f 



No. XI. Hay Infusion showed a very slight amount of 

 sediment after forty-four hours, which seemed to increase 

 somewhat during the next three days. The fluid after- 

 wards appeared to undergo no further change, though it 

 remained in the warm water-bath for fifteen days.t 



No. XII. Turnip Infusion in four days showed a well- 

 marked turbidity, and also very many flakes of a broken 

 pellicle.t 



This experiment is very interesting in two or three respects. 

 A neck of half the usual length with only four bendings sufficed 

 to preserve the fluid for several days ; and when this fluid (which 

 had been in the bent-neck apparatus for nine days) was sealed 

 up in the same flask during ebullition, it remained in vacua for 

 thirteen days without undergoing any apparent change, and then 

 only became turbid under the influence of a higher temperature. 

 Yet some of the same fluid, in a flask which was hermetically 

 sealed during the first ebullition (No. XV.) behaved as such an 

 infusion usually does, and became quite turbid in forty-eight 

 hours. 



f Flask still in my possession, unopened. 



