EXPERIMENTS WITH CEYPTOGAMIC GROWTHS. 169 



with filtering paper; contents, fresh yeast. Xo. 6, closed with vegetable parchment; con 

 tents, fluid as in Nos. 1 and 2. Xo. 7, closed with vegetable parchment; contents, fluid 

 as in Xos. 3 and 4. Xo. 8, closed with vegetable parchment; contents, nothing added. 



To each beaker, except 6 and 7, two growing slides were prepared with the same 

 fluids. April 14 the beakers were opened. Xos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 contained abundance of 

 yeast, and the covers were strongly convex. Xos. 5, G, and 7 contained yeast cells in the 

 tube, but none in the beaker; the yeast in Xo. 6 was very scanty. Xo. 8 remained un 

 changed. The growing slides were watched from day to day. Yeast cells appeared in 

 those corresponding to beakers 1 and 2 in forty-eight hours; in those corresponding to 3 

 and 4, one day later. They appeared in those corresponding to beaker Xo. 8 on the sixth 

 day, but none had appeared in the beaker on the tenth day. 



A number of other experiments were made on this subject, the results of the ma 

 jority of which were in accordance with those above given. Several times the conclusions 

 were vitiated from the fact that yeast developed in the sugar solution when nothing was 

 added. 



It seems probable, in view of the results of the preceding experiments, that some of 

 the bacteria and micrococcus germs are really fungoid in character and capable of develop 

 ment into higher forms. 



It is unlikely that till the minute organisms above referred to are of the same charac 

 ter, but any attempt at classification of them is of very doubtful utility. If it is ever 

 successfully clone it will probably be by the application of chemical tests. We may 

 mention that a solution of sulphate of quinine stops the motion of bacteria very quickly, 

 while strychnine has no particular effect; and, again, in a solution of pure carbolic acid, 

 two grains to the ounce, we have seen them quite lively twenty-four hours after they had 

 been placed in it. 



We do not suppose the above will hold good for all bacteria; indeed, we have 

 seen some that were rendered motionless almost instantaneously by solution of carbolic 

 acid. 



If the foregoing view of the nature of these bodies be accepted as probable, the 

 results of the culture experiments with the fluids of diseased and healthy animals can be 

 readily understood. In many animals, whether healthy or diseased, there arc no fungous 

 germs in the blood. We have kept vacuum tubes of blood for four months, and at the 

 end of that time the contents were perfectly normal. In other animals there are probably 

 germs in the blood during life, as shown by the fact that in vacuum tubes filled from them 

 the blood putrefied and the usual mycoderms developed ; but that these germs can develop 

 and multiply without dead organic material as a pabulum is very doubtful. 



The fungi which are developed from blood containing these gerrns arc, as might be 

 expected, the common molds, the spores of which are almost ubiquitous most frequently 

 penicillium, next mucor, next aspergillus. 



Other forms may appear, and those above mentioned may vary greatly in size, color, 

 and rapidity of development. 



As was stated in the beginning, our object was to determine the presence, and, as far 

 as possible, the nature of these germs. The query as to the connection between them and 

 disease, whether they should be considered as specific causes of the disease, or as carriers 

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