ORIGIN OF LOWEST ORGANISMS. 85 



granule heaps many large, rounded or ovoidal, densely 

 granular nucleated bodies, whose average size was 

 TTW" in diameter, though there were many of them 

 much larger, and others even less than half this size. 

 Intertwined amongst the granular matter also were a 

 large number of algoid-looking filaments, -^-Q^-Q^ in di- 

 ameter, containing segmented protoplasmic contents 

 There were also in the fluid itself a number of medium- 

 size, unsegmented Bacteria, whose movements were 

 somewhat languid.* 



SIXTH SET OF EXPERIMENTS (XLVIII. LXV.). 



Ammoniacal Solutions, unboiled, and exposed to Ordinary Air 

 in a Corked Bottled (Temp. 6o-65 F.) 



No. XLVIII. Ammonic Acetate Solution. On the 



* The results of this experiment, and of No. LXIII. are de- 

 cidedly opposed to the reality of the germ-killing powers with 

 which carbolic acid has been endowed by Professor Lister and 

 others. I, however, had previously found that specimens of 

 Torul(B and Bacteria, obtained from freshly opened flasks, and 

 then mounted as microscopical specimens in a mixture of 

 glycerine and carbolic acid (in the proportion of 15:1), not 

 unfrequently grew and multiplied under such conditions. MM. 

 Bechamp and Estor, also found that Bacteria multiplied in car- 

 bolized fluids, and similar facts have been testified to by some 

 Italian observers. But, organic fluids differ much from one 

 another, so that the influence of carbolic acid may well be different 

 upon different fluids. And, accordingly, we find that whilst its 

 addition to, and subsequent boiling with, a hay infusion increases 

 the fermentability of this, precisely the opposite effects are pro- 

 duced when the hay is replaced by a turnip infusion (see 

 No. XLV.). Without wishing to undervalue in the least the system 

 of treatment introduced, and so admirably carried out by Pro- 

 fessor Lister, I am strongly of opinion that he explains his results 

 by theories which are almost wholly incorrect. 



f All the simple ammoniacal solutions were in the proportion 



of 



