400 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 
Since then several additional experiments have been made under 
known conditions, and with a gold solution of known strength. 
On the occasion referred to the fungoid growths exhibited had 
formed in bottles of distilled water, containing very finely divided 
gold in suspension, which had been prepared at different times to 
show a class of students that, under ordinary circumstances, gold 
reduced from a weak solution of the chloride by means of 
phosphorus dissolved in ether, usually takes several years to 
completely precipitate and yield a clear solution. 
On examining the bottles, some of which had been settling 
since 1881, it was found that those containing a colourless liquid 
were also characterised by the presence of fungoid growths, 
usually at the bottom of the bottles; those without fungoid 
growths still possessed either the ruby red or the purple colour 
characteristic of gold reduced by phosphorus in ether; z.e., the 
gold still remained in suspension. 
In the case of a bottle put up on 28th November, 1884, a 
purple blue growth had formed, and the solution was practically 
colourless ; the bottle had not been opened since 1884, and had 
been kept in the dark for six years. On removing the stopper 
the odour of ether was still present. 
Under the microscope, with a low power, the growth had the 
appearance of a mass of matted purple-blue filaments; when 
dried over a spirit lamp the filaments retained their form, but lost 
their purple colour and acquired the metallic lustre and colour 
of gold. 
When the growth was rubbed in a mortar it also immediately 
acquired the colour and lustre of gold. 
Although none of the solutions free from fungoid growths were 
colourless, many of those with fungoid growths still possessed 
tints of ruby or purple, even after standing for five or six years, 
e.g., a solution in a bottle put up on Ist December, 1884, was in 
September, 1889, still of a deep purple-red colour, with a large 
purple-red muffin-like mould at the bottom of the bottle some 
34 in. across and Jin. thick; but by 29th May, 1890, the whole 
of the colour had disappeared from the liquid. The disappearance 
of the tint between September, 1889, and 29th May, 1890, may 
have been hastened by the exposure of the bottle to daylight. * 
In the case of a quart bottle put up on 30th April, 1885, the 
solution “was, in October, 1889, perfectly colourless, and the 
fungoid growths were of a different character, some being white 
and others blue-black ; the white ones were floating oval bodies, 
about din. in length, with a blue-black nucleus. 
(Specimens of these growths, together with micro-photographs 
and drawings of the same, enlarged 1000 diameters, were 
exhibited). 
* This observation is now added to the paper as originally read. 
