RECENT RESEARCHES ON THE BACTERIA. l43 



Stratified deposit, the lowermost strata of which followed the shape 

 of the platform, steps, and floor of the Bath. This was largely 

 intermixed with fresh-water shells. An account of this deposit 

 forms the subject of another paper in the current number of this 

 Journal. 



It is very probable that these remains form only a small por- 

 tion of a very extensive range of buildings connected with the 

 Roman Baths, and which have been unfortunately covered by 

 parts of the present city of Bath. 



IRcccnt 1Rc6carcbc9 on tbc Bacteria^ 



By J. B. Jeaffreson, M.R.C.S., Lon., F.S.A., etc. 



IF we take a drop of any putrefying liquid and examine it under 

 the microscope, with a power of three or four hundred diame- 

 ters, a wonderful spectacle meets our view : we find it full of 

 myriads of very minute bodies ; globular, oblong, or cylindrical, 

 moving about like a swarm of gnats, twisting in and out of each 

 other, then remaining quiet for an instant and again resuming 

 their active movement. These minute organisms are Bacteria, 

 the subjects we have under consideration in the present paper. 

 Their number is legion, and their presence ubiquitous. They are 

 found wherever albuminoid matter affords the material for sustain- 

 ing life : in water, in blood, in animal juices and secretions of all 

 kinds, wherever organic matter is passing into decay, there they 

 are present. Associated as they are with the questions of sponta- 

 neous generation, putrefaction, and the pathology and therapeutics 

 of many of the most virulent diseases, the investigation of their 

 history cannot fail to be of extreme interest and importance to the 

 general student, the biologist, and the physician. 



One great difficulty which meets us in the study of the Bacteria^ 

 or perhaps I should rather say, in the study of the observations of 



