1865.] Organisms in Closed Vessels. 179 



I had the honour of communicating to the Royal Society in May last, and 

 of which an abstract appeared in the 'Proceedings' for June 16, 1864. 

 The former series of experiments did not pretend to be, in any respect, com- 

 plete. Those which 1 am now about to describe will, I hope, be con- 

 sidered to be more so in regard to one main subject of the inquiry ; but 

 they also suggest further researches upon some collateral branches of it, 

 which I hope to find time and opportunity to prosecute. 



In the former series I experimented with animal substances mixed with 

 water and enclosed in glass bulbs in atmospheres either of common air 

 passed through red-hot tubes or of various gases, and the result at which 

 I arrived was that where oxygen was present organisms of a low type were 

 produced, but not so where that gas was not present. Thus, whatever the 

 gas employed, where the substance was not boiled, the organisms ap- 

 peared ; but in the instances in which the substance was boiled, they appeared 

 where oxygen or common air was used, but not where nitrogen, hydrogen, 

 or carbonic acid was employed. One experiment only appeared to have 

 produced a result which could not be reconciled with the rest, viz. in which 

 some meat and water had been boiled and sealed up in an atmosphere of 

 nitrogen. In this, some organisms were found ; but so completely was this 

 result unlike that found hi the whole of the rest of the series, that I felt 

 convinced that some error must have been made in the experiment itself. 



The experiments now to be described have a narrower range than the 

 others. With the exception of a few, which were mere repetitions of the 

 experiments with nitrogen just referred to, and which were undertaken 

 solely with the view of seeing whether the experiment just mentioned were 

 correct or not, they are confined to the single object of observing whether 

 or not organisms are found in close vessels containing vegetable matter and 

 water sealed up in an atmosphere of common air previously passed through 

 an efficient heating apparatus. 



In these experiments I have adopted some slight modifications of the 

 apparatus used in the former ones. That now employed consists of a 

 porcelain tube, the central part of which is filled with roughly pounded 

 porcelain ; one end is connected with a gas-holder, and to the other the 

 bulb is joined which contains the substance to be experimented upon. The 

 bulb has two narrow necks or tubes, each of which is drawn out before the 

 experiment begins, so as to be easily sealed by the lamp ; one neck is con- 

 nected with the porcelain tube, as already stated, by means of an india- 

 rubber cork, and the other is bent down and inserted into a vessel contain- 

 ing sulphuric acid. The central part of the porcelain tube is heated by 

 means of a furnace, and when it has attained a vivid red heat the bulb is 

 joined on, the end of the porcelain tube which projects from the furnace 

 beins made thoroughly hot immediately before the cork is inserted, the cork 

 itself being taken out of boiling water, and the neck of the bulb being also 

 heated with a spirit-lamp immediately before it is inserted into the cork. 

 A stream of air is now passed through the apparatus by means of the gas- 



