DURING DECOMPOSITION. 97 



about with undulations rather than a wriggling motion. A sin- 

 gle ultimate cellule, when set loose, danced about in a zigzag 

 manner; but whenever two were combined, the motion had a 

 definite direction, which corresponded to the longer diameter of 

 the duplicate combination ; and if only three were combined, 

 the spiral motion was the result of their united action. What 

 it is that causes these cellules to move I do not profess to know, 

 but certainly it is not because they possess life as independent 

 beings. This much is settled, however, that we may have pre- 

 sented to us all the phenomena of life, as exhibited by the ac- 

 tivity of the lowest forms of animals and plants, by the ultimate 

 cellules of the decomposed and fetid striated muscle of a Sagitta. 

 I do not pretend to say that everything that comes under the 

 name of Vibrio or Spirillum is a decomposed muscle or other 

 tissue, although I believe such will turn out to be the fact ; but 

 this much I will vouch for, that what would be declared, by 

 competent authority, to be a living being, and accounted a cer- 

 tain species of Vibrio, is nothing but absolutely dead muscle." 



Just one month after this paper was presented to the Academy, 

 I was so fortunate as to make a similar but more startling dis- 

 covery in regard to the decaying conditions of another animal. 

 The day after this discovery I communicated it to the Academy. 

 It reads thus : 



" No longer ago than yesterday, (May 10th, 1859,) I was for- 



* Where fibre, either muscular or tendinous, is present, it may account for 

 the presence of Vibrios, or rather vibrio-like bodies ; but when the latter occur 

 in infusions containing simply fluids or juices of various bodies, they cannot 

 possibly be traced to that substance. The above article, as I believe now, only 

 proves that there are certain bodies which in a decomposing condition simulate 

 the form and actions of Vibrios. This simply arises from the fact that all very 

 minute bodies appear alike under certain conditions, for instance when seen with 

 insufficient powers of the microscope. This I have more recently shown, as in 

 the case of the decomposing muscle and tendon of the Sheep. When seen with 

 the ordinary high powers, the vibrios of the tendons seemed identical with those 

 of the muscle, but when more magnified with an extremely high power, the oval 

 form of the beaded joints of the tendon-vibrio became apparent, and enabled one 

 to distinguish them from those of the muscle when the two were mixed together. 



