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pulsating bodies with transparent ends and opaque centres 

 were observed. The possibility of disease being carried 

 from person to person by sheets, towels, handkerchiefs, 

 gloves, &c., in consequence of minute organisms having 

 obtained a lodgment thereon, is referred to as an inference 

 from the fact that the minute organism of itch can live out- 

 side the body for two or three days. The existence of 

 globular and elliptical micro-organisms in water, wine, 

 brandy, vinegar, beer, spittle, and urine is mentioned, with 

 the occasional, though rare appearance of spots therein and 

 central constriction ; and the tendency of certain species to 

 seek the top of the liquor apparently " for the sake of the 

 air" is also mentioned. Small-pox is compared to fermen- 

 tation, and it is suggested that it may be propagated through 

 the air, "a bad disposition of the air" being favourable to 

 its reappearance. It is suggested that the "variolous pus" 

 when inoculated finds in the body "the native congenial 

 variolous seeds," and ferments with them. This appears 

 to be an inversion of the common modern doctrine which 

 regards the inoculated matter as containing the germ and the 

 animal body as producing the special fluid or milieu for its 

 development ; but it is perhaps in accordance with the ideas 

 of Bdchamp, the "native congenial variolous seeds" being 

 possibly the micro-zymes of that inquirer. 



3. — These earliest speculative results of Leeuwenhoek's 

 important discoveries cover the whole range of the latest 

 investigations into the nature, life-history, and action of 

 microbes. The problems then started still occupy the minds 

 of scientific men, and it may even be said that no absolute 

 answer has yet been given to any of them. Though Dr. Tyndall 

 has said that the doctrine of spontaneous generation is dead, 

 the advocates of that doctrine are prepared to maintain that 

 the question has only been moved a stage further back. It 

 is quite certain that the extreme members of the evolutionary 

 school would not admit that it has been finally demonstrated 



