33 
with the find at the Derwent Tin Plate Works in 1889. I had 
made some reference to the discovery in course of a conversation 
with my friend Mr. H. Thompson, F.R.C.V.S., of Aspatria, the 
energetic Secretary to the Directors of the Aspatria Agricultural 
College ; and he was anxious to know the degree of heat to which 
the material would be exposed, when in use at the Tin Plate 
Works. On inquiry, I was told that no reliable record was kept, 
but that approximately I might take the extreme as ranging from 
85° to go° Fah. The question was then started as to what amount 
of heat some of these necessarily very minute seeds—those of 
Mentha requiem for example—were calculated to sustain without 
injury to their germinating power. Mr. Thompson, who is presi- 
dent for the year of an association of his professional brethren, at 
their annual meeting held in Edinburgh, made incidental reference 
to the facts communicated to him by myself. He was asked by a 
gentleman present—Mr. Phillips, an army V.S. attached to a 
cavalry regiment stationed at Jock’s Lodge Barracks, Edinburgh— 
whether the seeds might not have been wind-blown from plants in 
the immediate neighbourhood of the Tin Plate Works. The 
president’s reply distinctly negatived the suggestion ; whereupon 
Mr. Phillips replied that, taking into account the heat and friction 
described without injury to the germinating powers of the seeds, it 
was not unreasonable to suggest that the bacilli of anthrax might 
be contained in cotton cake, surviving the heat and pressure em- 
_ ployed in the manufacture or preparation of the cake from the 
seeds of the cotton plant. The question thus raised remains for 
decision experimentally or otherwise. 
On the other hand, singular instances are not wanting to show 
_ that seeds retain their vitality unimpaired under circumstances of 
_amost unfavourable nature. In the summer of 1852, the second 
year of my residence at Aspatria, the season was exceptionally dry, 
and the large pond known as Brandraw was sufficiently reduced in 
bulk to allow of the bottom being cleared of twenty years’ accumu- 
lation of mudand sludge. This was laid aside against an adjoining 
wall until it should become sufficiently solidified to admit of its 
being carted away for agricultural purposes. In an incredibly 
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