632 
For an easy survey and comparison of results I started in my 
graphical illustration from 1000 living bacteria, the numbers obtained: 
by the experiment underwent a corresponding reduction. 
Table I contains the numerical data resulting from an experiment. 
As I stated before, Mapsen and Nyman’s interpretation of the 
conformity in the process of unimolecular reactions and the disin- 
fection of anthrax spores is open to doubt. With greater consistency 
H. Cuick avers not only tbat the two processes agree outwardly 
but are even completely analogous : 
“The fact that the individuals do not die all at once but at a 
“rate proportional to the concentration of the survivors at a given 
“moment, is to be attributed to temporal and rhythmical changes 
“in resistance, which by an analogy with chemical processes, may 
“be supposed to be due to temporary energy changes of the con- 
“stituent proteins.” : 
Thus putting bacteria on a level with molecules has raised some 
objections. Reiner) remarks that this is admissible only if the 
chances of the germs being attacked by the active mass of the 
disinfectant were not the same for all bacteria, which in an homo- 
geneous liquid is possible only for particles commensurable as to 
number and size, such as molecules, not however for micro-organisms 
and molecules. RericHeNBACH thinks so too. He can hardly imagine, 
that considering the vast difference in size, not all bacteria should be 
under the same circumstances, relative to the molecules of the germicide. 
Still less can it be maintained that the bacteria must reach the 
thermal deathpoint in succession. Moreover considering, that the type 
of the curve of survivors is not at all determined by the character 
of the noxious agent, RrEICHENBACH is induced to think, that the cause 
is to be looked for only in the micro-organisms themselves, i.e. that 
differing resistance decides the order of their destruction. The same 
observer adduces theoretical and experimental evidence to prove, 
that resistance depends chiefly on the “age” of a generation and 
shows, by a mathematical treatment, that a culture, having been 
developed in a definite manner, may contain generations, which, 
when classified according to their ages form a geometrical series. 
Assuming moreover that the individual resistance of the cells in- 
creases with the age of the generation, this would afford solid ground 
to account for the orderly progress of disinfection. 
It seems to me that this attempt to settle the question is some- 
what artificial, its weak point being that RerrcHeNBaAcH, on the basis 
1) Biochem. Z. Bnd. 1i, 1908. 
