Wyman.] 98 



at the bottom to facilitate decomposition; in this they re- 

 mained two weeks, when one of them was examined. One- 

 fourth of the interior was filled with air, the membranes were 

 unbroken, and there was no crack in the shell, but the whole 

 cavity was lined with a full crop of mould giving out its 

 spores abundantly. The others were examined later, with the 

 same results in all. 



There were three ways in which to account for the pres- 

 ence of the mould : — 



That the spores were already in the egg when laid. 



That they afterward penetrated from without inward. 



That they were produced by spontaneous generation. 



Prof. Wyman thought that the first supposition, though 

 not probable, was possible. He considered it more likely 

 that they had penetrated through the shell itself, because 

 the shell was made up of granules of lime and the mem- 

 branes of fibres, and therefore not homogeneous, but more 

 strictly a texture. 



In answer to an inquiry of Dr. White, Prof Wyman stated 

 that he had not seen the spores making their way through 

 either the shell or the membrane. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson suggested covering the egg with soluble 

 glass to prevent the possibility of the entrance of spores. 



Another experiment w^as mentioned by Professor Wyman, 

 in which he endeavored to test the assertion of Pasteur that 

 Vibrios and Bacteriums have the power of resisting the action 

 of boiling water. 



He took three vessels thoroughly cleansed, in each of which 

 a similar quantity of boiled and filtered beef-juice w^as 

 placed. One he allowed to remain as it was; to the second 

 he added five drops of infusorial water; and to the third five 

 drops of the same infusorial water after it had been boiled. 

 At the commencement of the experiment the liquid in all the 

 vessels was transparent — at the end of twenty-four hours the 

 first was still transparent, the second had become turbid, from 

 the presence of infusoria which had rapidly multiplied, and the 

 third remained as transparent as the first, nor did it become 

 turbid until the third day, when the first and third were 

 equally so. 



