196 PROGKESS or MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 



does not interfere witli the general health of the animal. Now M. 

 Chauveau, of Lyons, began by injecting into the blood of a ram from 

 fom* to five grains of the matter obtained from j>utrid abscesses. This 

 dose is sufficient to impregnate the whole organism, but not strong 

 enough to kill. The first symptoms of septicfemic fever, which gene- 

 rally last from twelve to forty-eight hours, were allowed to pass by, 

 and M. Chauveau then performed the usual twisting operation, viz. 

 within, and not disturbing the scrotum. But the testis, which, by 

 the introduction of the irritating matter, received putrid fluids carried 

 there by the cii'culation, instead of becoming simply atrophied, was 

 seized with gangrene, tm*ned sloughy, and the animal died. M. 

 Chauveau (whose j^aper was presented to the Academy of Sciences of 

 Paris by M. Pastern-) considers that the cause of the gangrene lies in 

 the vibriones ; for when the same experiment was performed with the 

 filtrated septic fluid no gangrene supervened. It should not, however, 

 be forgotten that Dr. Onimus has made experiments of a negative 

 kind, and denies that any septic power is possessed by the vibriones. 



Experiments on Archehiosis : Dr. Bastian and Dr. Sanderson. — 

 The following two letters appeared in succeeding weeks in Jult/ last 

 on this subject ; and as the subject is of considerable interest we 

 extract both from ' Nature.' Firstly, we give Dr. Sanderson's letter, 

 which is in reply to an earlier one by Dr. Bastian. He says, from 

 Dr. Bastian's letter in last week's ' Nature ' I learn that my last com- 

 munication has afforded him satisfaction. The gratification which I 

 feel at this expression of his api)roval is mixed with some surprise; 

 for however confirmatory my experiments may be of his, so far as 

 relates to the bare fact that boiling is insufficient to destroy the ger- 

 minating power of the tui'nip-cheese liquid, they certainly do not tell in 

 favour of the inference which he is understood to draw from that fact. 



The experiments which Dr. Bastian was kind enough to show me 

 last December were regarded by him as unequivocal instances of 

 si^ontaneous generation. He will remember that at that time I stated 

 to him, both orally and in writing, that the significance of the results 

 in their relation to the doctrine of heterogenesis, appeared to me to 

 be doubtful, and that I thought it probable that they would be inter- 

 l^reted by different persons in opposite senses, according to their pre- 

 conceived opinions. I expressed myself in a similar manner at a dis- 

 cussion which took place on the subject last winter at the Royal 

 Society. It was for the purpose of clearing u]) this doubt that I made 

 the experiments recorded in my last communication. I did not expect 

 to prove that the production of bacteria in Dr. Bastian's experiments 

 was 7iot spontaneous, but merely to determine whether the fact afforded 

 any supjiort to the opjwsite conclusion. 



Having first shown that living organisms increase and multiply in 

 the liquid in question, when boiled at the ordinary temperature, under 

 circumstances which absolutely preclude the introduction of living- 

 matter from without, I prove that under otherwise similar conditions 

 this result is not obtained when the liquid is subjected to ebullition at 

 a slightly higher temperature. I show further that the liquid even 

 when heated to 102°* 5 C. suffers no impairment of its power of sup- 



