232 PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 



When instead of calcinm-pliosj)liate and peptone, are added • 05 

 grm. calcium-pliospliate and • 5 grm. urea, nothing appears ; and tho 

 result is equally negative when the following solution is taken : — 100 

 e.c. water, • 2 gi'm. potassium-nitrate, • 2 grm. magnesium-sulphate, 

 • 05 grm. calcium-phosphate, 1 grm. potassium-natrium-tartrate, ■ 3 

 grm. peptone. In this latter case no acid is used. The addition of 

 the tartrate is made to have a sufficient quantity of carbon in the liquid. 

 These control-experiments prove that none of the employed materials, 

 neither the glucose, nor the calcium-phosphate, nor the peptone, did 

 introduce germs. 



By these experiments the above-stated objection is, in my opinion, 

 satisfactorily refuted. 



In concluding these remarks, I must mention an important fact. 

 For the above-described experiments, I employed mostly the ordinary 

 glucose, an amorjjhous, yellowish white mass, not chemically pure. 

 By crystallization from strong alcohol, I purified this sugar. In three 

 different preparations I obtained thus three samples of perfectly white 

 more or less piu-e glucose. One of these samples yielded, with pep- 

 tone, bacteria ; not so the other two. All three were prepared with 

 the utmost caution respecting atmospheric dust, &c. That, moreover, 

 the positive result could not be caused by an accidental admixture of 

 germs was amjjly proved by the often-repeated control-experiments. 

 It apjiears therefore that, besides the glucose and the peptone, a third 

 substance is needed for generating bacteria, a body present in the 

 ordinary glucose (starch sugar), but removed by purification. The 

 natiare of this body I have not yet been able to ascertain. But how- 

 ever important, this matter has no direct bearing upon the question of 

 abiogenesis. For that this third unknown body cannot be (as some 

 will probably presume) a germ, my control-experiments and also the 

 above-described experiment, wherein the sugar was boiled with acid, 

 do sufficiently prove. 



The Physiology of Menstruation. — The ' Medical Times and Gazette ' 

 gives a very able leading article, which contains a full account of 

 Herr Kundrat's researches on this point. It says, it is probably 

 the general belief among physiologists and the profession in general 

 that diu'ing menstruation one or more ova reach the uterus, and 

 there either become attached to the sui-face of the mucous mem- 

 brane or disappear, according as fecundation has occurred or not. If 

 an embryo is developed from the ovum it will correspond with the 

 menstruation immediately preceding — or, in other words, pregnancy 

 will date from the menstruation which last occurred. Dr. Kundrat, 

 of Vienna (Eokitansky's senior assistant), has just published an 

 account of certain researches of his upon the anatomical condition 

 of the uterine mucous membrane before, during, and after menstrua- 

 tion, which throws very grave doubts upon the correctness of this 

 belief.* Kundrat's investigations are all the more worthy of atten- 

 tion that they were of a purely anatomical natiu'e. He examined the 

 mucous membrane of the human uterus in the intervals of menstrua- 

 tion, immediately before the haemorrhage, during the haemorrhage, 

 * ' Medizinische Jalirbiioher,' 1873, vol. ii., ^d. 135. 



