162 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



poses, as a crop of wheat is raised from its seed. He dwelt 

 upon experiments by Recklingshauser in regard to the devel- 

 opment of blood, and stated that he had himself seen in the 

 laboratory of that gentleman blood which had been three 

 weeks, four weeks, and five weeks out of the body preserved 

 in little porcelain cuj:>s under glass shades, and which was 

 then living and growing, the amoeba-like movements of the 

 white corpuscles being present, with abundant evidence of 

 growth and development ; also a frog's heart still pulsating 

 which had been removed from the body more than a week. 

 This was attributed to the entire absence of putrefactive 

 germs, the instruments employed having been raised to a red 

 heat just before use, and the suspending threads of silver 

 wire being similarly heated. It is also stated that the reme- 

 dial effect of bandages, plasters, etc., upon wounds and sores 

 is in large part dependent upon the exclusion of atmospheric 

 germs by their application, and that it is now considered one 

 of the cardinal principles in surgery to protect, as far as pos- 

 sible, any injured surface from the entrance of such germs. 

 12-4, 1811) June 15,124. 



CALVERT ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 



Mr. Crace Calvert, well known for his researches upon proto- 

 plasmic life in its different conditions, has recently instituted 

 a series of inquiries as to whether the germs existing or pro- 

 duced in a liquid in a state of fermentation or of putrefaction 

 could be conveyed to a liquid susceptible of entering into 

 these states, and has presented the first results of his inqui- 

 ries to the Royal Society of London. In the course of his ex- 

 periments he was astonished to find how rapid the develop- 

 ment of germ life may be under certain circumstances. Thus, 

 if the white of a new-laid egg be mixed with water (free from 

 life), and exposed to the atmosphere for only fifteen minutes 

 in the month of August or September, it will show life in 

 abundance. For this reason he was misled in many of his 

 earlier experiments in not being sufficiently careful to avoid 

 even momentary exposure to the atmosphere. To the want 

 of a knowledge of this fact he ascribes all the erroneous con- 

 elusions arrived at by several persons who have devoted their 

 attention to the subject of spontaneous generation. Refer- 

 ring to the paper itself for details, we may say that a positive 



