222 



NATURE 



\7uly6, 1876 



It was further ascertained that the acidity of some specimens 

 of urine was lessened during the process of ebullition (owing to 

 the deposition of acid phosphates) ; and such urines boiled 

 for six minutes were found to ferment in a much shorter time 

 than when they were only boiled for three minutes. The pro- 

 longation to this extent of the germ-destroying temperature 

 actually hastened the subsequent process of fermentation. 



Interpretation of Results. 



The generally received belief that all Bacteria and their germs 

 are killed by exposing them even for a minute or two to the tem- 

 perature of 212° F. {loo°C.) has of late been strongly reinforced by 

 Prof. Tyndall. The fact, therefore, of the fermentation of some 

 specimens of boiled acid urine, with the appearance of swarms 

 of Bacteria, under the influence of the high generating tempe- 

 rature of 122° F. (50° C),'.is inexplicable except upon the suppo- 

 sition that fermentation has in these instances been initiated 

 without the aid of living germs, and that the organisms first 

 appearing in such fluids have been evolved therein. 



If the author's further position (Proceedings of Royal Society, 

 Nos. 143 and 145, 1873), that Bacteria and their germs are killed 

 in fluids whether acid or alkaline at a temperature of 158° F. 

 (70° C), is correct, then the occurrence of fermentation in the 

 previously neutralised boiled urine would similarly disprove the 

 exclusive germ-theory of fermentation and establish the occurrence 

 of Archebiosis. 



Any difficulty which might have been felt by others in accept- 

 ing the above interpretation of the results of these latter experi- 

 ments — in face of the view held by M. Pasteur that some Bacteria 

 germs are able in neutral fluids to survive an exposure to a heat 

 of 212° F. (100° C.)— has been fairly met and nullified by the 

 experiments (devised for the purpose), in which the urine was 

 boiled in the acid state and subsequently fertilised by the addition 

 of boiled liquor potassae. 



If we look at these latter experiments from an independent 

 point of view, it will be found that this fertilisation of a previously 

 barren fluid by boiled liquor potassre must be explained by one 

 or other of three hypotheses : — 



1st Hypothesis. The boiled liquor potassa: may act as a fer- 

 tilising agent because it contains living germs. — However improb- 

 able this hypothesis may seem on the face of it, it has been 

 actually disproved by many of the experiments recorded in this 

 memoir. These experiments show that boiled liquor potassse 

 will only act as a fertilising agent when it is added in certain 

 proportions. If it acted as a mere germ-containing medium, a 

 single drop of it would suffice to infect many ounces, a gallon, 

 or more of the sterilised fluid. This, however, is never the case ; 

 it only fertilises the barren urine when it is added in a proportion 

 dependent upon the precise acidity and quantity of the fluid with 

 which experiment is being made. 



7.nd Hypothesis. The fertilising agent may act by reviving 

 germs hitherto p-esumed to have been killed in the boiled acid urine. 

 — The acceptance of this hypothesis would involve a general 

 recantation of the previously received conclusion that Bacteria 

 and their germs are killed by boiling them in acid fluids. But 

 such a recantation would be scarcely justifiable or acceptable 

 unless based upon good independent evidence. 



The possibihty, however, of accepting this second hypothesis 

 is still further closed by the results of experiments in which a 

 slight excess of liquor potassse was added to the boiled urine. 

 Such fluids invariably remained barren. Yet it can be easily 

 shown that the mere development and growth of Bacteria-germs 

 may take place both quickly and freely in boiled urine containing 

 a very large excess of liquor potassse.^ It would seem that this 

 agent mixed with boiled urine in quantity slightly more than is 

 needed for neutralisation, prevents the origination of living matter 

 therein, although even when in considerable excess the same 

 agent affords no obstacle to the development, growth, and multi- 

 plication of germs purposely added thereto. 



In the face of these facts it would seem impossible to accept 

 this second hypothesis, even if it had not been independently 

 negatived by the great mass of evidence — lately reinforced by the 

 experiments of Prof. Tyndall— to the effect that Bacteria and their 

 germs are really killed in fluids raised for a few minutes to the 

 boiling-point (212° F.). 



Zrd Hypothesis. The fertilising agent acts by helping to initiate 

 chemical changes of a fermentative character in a fluid devoid of 



A mixture of one part of liquor potassse to seven of boiled urin« poured 

 into a bottle which has been washed with ordinary tap-water will, within 

 Jorty-eight hours, swarm with Bacteria if it is kept at a temperature of 



living organisms or living germs. ~\i the cause of the fermenta- 

 tion of the fluids in question does not exist in the form of living 

 organisms or germs either in the fertilising agent itself or in the 

 medium fertilised, then it must be found in some chemical 

 reactions set up between the boiled liquor potassce and the boiled 

 urine. 



The experiments in which liquor potassse is added to urine in 

 definite proportions before and after it has been boiled with the 

 result of inducing fermentation in the otherwise barren fluids, as 

 well as those in which unaltered urine ferments under the influ- 

 ence of the high generating temperature of 122° F. (50° C.), all 

 alike, therefore, point to the same conclusion. They show, as 

 other experiments have done, that an exclusive germ-theory of 

 fermentation is untenable ; and they further show that living 

 matter may and does originate independently during the progress 

 of fermentation in previously germless fluids. 



As a result of the fermentative changes taking place in boiled 

 urine or other complex organic solutions, many new chemical 

 compounds are produced. Gases are given off", or these with 

 other soluble products mix imperceptibly with the changing and 

 quickening mother-liquid, in all parts of which certain insoluble 

 products also make their appearance. Such insoluble products 

 re\;eal themselves to us as specks of protoplasm, that is of 

 "living " matter. They gradually emerge into the region of the 

 visible, and speedily assume the well-known forms of one or 

 other variety of Bacteria. 



These insoluble particles would thus in their own persons 

 serve to bridge the narrow gulf between certain kinds of " living" 

 and of "dead" matter, and thereby afford a long-sought-for 

 illustration of the transition from chemical to so-called '* vital" 

 combinations. 



Zoological Society, June 20.— Prof. Flower, F.R.S., vice- 

 prscident, in the chair.— The Secretary exhibited a drawing of a 

 fine species of Fruit-Pigeon of the genus Carphopoga, living in the 

 Society's Gardens, which apparently belonged to C. paulina, 

 Bp. of Celebes and the Sulu Islands. — Mr. Sclater read extracts 

 from letters received from Signor L. M. D'Albertis and Dr. 

 George Bennett, respecting M. D'Albertis' proposed new expe- 

 dition up the Fly River, New Guinea, and exhibited a small 

 collect-.on of bird skins made at Yule Island and on the adjoining 

 coast of New Guinea, by the last-named naturalist. — Dr. A. 

 Giinther, F.R.S., read a letter from Commander W. E. Cook- 

 son, R.N., respecting the large tortoises obtained in the Gala- 

 pagos Islands which had been recently deposited in the Society's 

 Gardens by Commander Cookson. The living specimens had 

 been obtained in Albemarle Island, those obtained in Abingdon 

 Island having died before reaching this country. Dr. Giinther 

 added some remarks on the specimens of tortoises and other 

 animals collected by Commander Cookson, and promised a more 

 detailed account on a future occasion. — Mr. G. E. Dobson read 

 a paper on peculiar structures in the feet of certain species of 

 mammals by which they are enabled to walk on smooth per- 

 pendicular surfaces, especially alluding to Hyrax and the bats of 

 the genus Thyroptera. — A communication was read from Dr. J. 

 S. Bowerbank, F.R.S., being the sixth part of his monograph of 

 the silicio-fibrous sponges. — A communication was read trom the 

 Rev. O. P. Cambridge containing a catalogue of a collection of 

 spiders made in Egypt, with descriptions of new species and 

 characters of a new genus. — A communication was read from 

 Mr. W. T. Blanford containing remarks on the views of A, von 

 P«lreln as to the connection of the faunas of India and Africa 

 and on the mammalian fauna of Tibet — A second communi' 

 cation from Mr. W. T. Blanford contained remarks on some of 

 the specific id«ntifications in Dr. Giinther's second report on col- 



lections of Indian raptiles obtained by the British Museum. 



Mr. Howard Saunders read a paper on the Sternina: or Terns, 

 with descriptions of three new species, which he proposed to 

 call Sterna tibetana, Sterna eurygnatha, and Gygis microrhyncha. 

 —Dr. Cunningham, of the University of Edinburgh, described a 

 youag specimen of a dolphin, caught off" Great Grimsby, in Sep- 

 tember, 1875. After pointing out the great difficulty expe- 

 rienced in referring it to its proper place amongst the dolphins — 

 thit difficulty arising chiefly from the unsatisfactory and even 

 unreliable descriptions which have been given in this country by 

 former observers — he came to the conclusion that he was justified 

 in referring it to Delphinus albirestris, the differences being, in 

 his opinion, merely those of age. — Mr. J. "W. Clark read some 

 notes on a dolphin lately taken off the coast of Norfolk, which 

 he was likewise induced to refer to the same species. — A 



