THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



characteristic of those boiled solutions which have been 

 subsequently kept (without such addition) in airless and 

 hermetically-sealed flasks. 



But, although the boiled fluids in hermetically-sealed flasks 

 (with or without air) have never been known to become 

 turbid, or to yield Bacteria and Vibrmies, they have never- 

 theless very frequently been found to present other kinds of 

 organisms. A slight deposit, of a dirty greyish-white or 

 brownish colour, has gradually collected at the bottom of the 

 flask, and this on subsequent microscopical examination has 

 generally been found to contain some organisms, and occa- 

 sionally bodies of an uncertain nature, intermixed with 

 peculiar amorphous fragments, brown or colourless granules, 

 and a small number of textile fibres of various kinds. 



The organisms have been either fungus filaments and 

 spores similar to those represented in Figs. 29 and 36, Torulce 

 such as have been sketched in Fig. 28, various kinds of 

 flagon-shaped bodies of a light brown colour (apparently 

 budding out into filaments and containing blocks of proto- 

 plasm within), or else roundish spores of very variable shape 

 and size — some being smooth externally, others rough, and 

 most of them having thick walls. 



The fermentability of these solutions seems to be very 

 notably lowered by the process of ebullition to which they 

 have been submitted, and the fungus spores and filaments 

 which subsequently occur appear to grow with extreme 

 slowness (see vol. i. p. 281). 



In addition to these unmistakeable organisms (which have 

 in some cases been proved to be really living) obtained from 

 the saline solutions, other bodies have been encountered 

 whose real nature is deemed to be very doubtful. 



The first of these is the product called Sarcina (Fig. 21), 

 which, since its discovery by the late Professor Goodsir\ has 

 1 See vol. i. p. 286. 



