March I, 1877] 



NATURE 



381 



matter. If Dr. Bastian wishes to use a solution of impure potash, 

 I freely authorise him to take any in the English or any other 

 Pharmacopoeia, being diluted or concentrated, on the sole con- 

 dition that that solution shall be raised beforehand to 1 10° for 

 twenty minutes, or to 130° for five minutes. 



This is clear enough, it seems to me, and Dr. Bastian will 

 un<1erstand me this time. 



The following reply to the above was read at the Academy on 

 February 12 :^ — 



At the seance of January 29, M. Pasteur, in reply to a com- 

 munication which I had made at the previous stance, challenges 

 me to cause sterile urine to ferment by the addition of a suitable 

 quantity ol liquor potassa, " on the sole condition that this solu- 

 tion shall be raised beforehand to 1 10° for twenty minutes, 

 or to 130° for five minutes." 



In order that M, Pasteur may not attribute to me the least 

 desire " to elude the main point of the debate," and also with the 

 view of testifying the respect which I consider due to the opinions 

 of so di>!tiniiuished an investigator, I hastened at once to accept 

 his challenge. During the last week I have repeated my experi- 

 ments several times, and with a degree of precaution going much 

 beyond the severity of the conditions prescribed by M. Pasteur. 



I repeated them at first with liquor potassse which had been 

 previously ra'sed to //o" C. for sixty minutes, and after- 

 wards with liquor potassas which had been raised, in the same 

 manner, to 110° C. for twenty hours. The results have been 

 altogether similar to those produced upon sterile urine by liquor 

 potassse, which has been raised only to 100°, when added in 

 suitable quantity ; that is to say, in twenty-four to forty-ei§ht 

 hours the urine was in full fermentation and szvarmed with 

 bacteria. The specimens of urine employed had a specific 

 gravity ranging from 1,020-1,022, and they required about 3 

 per cent, of liquor potassoc for neutralisation. 



If M. Pasteur has found himself unable to renounce his inter- 

 pretation of my experiments on account of "la preuve mani- 

 fesle," which I have cited in my last communication (p. 189 of 

 the Compt. Rend.), I hope he will frankly accept the disproof of 

 his views furnished by the experiments which I have now the 

 honour of communicating to the Academy, and which have 

 been made in acceptance of his own challenge. These experi- 

 ments I hope in a short time to repeat before competent judge:-. 



Verbal Reply of M. Pasteur. 



I thank Dr. Bastian for having accepted the proposition which 

 I made to him at the sh7tce of the 29th of January. In conse- 

 quence, I have the honour to beg the Academy to appoint a 

 commission to report upon the fact which is under discussion 

 between Dr. Bastian and myself. 



I hope that Dr. Bastian will seek to induce the Royal 

 Society of London, of which he is a member, to nominate a 

 commission for the same purpose. 



At the seance of February 19, it was announced that MM. 

 Dumas, Milne-Edwards, and Boussingault have been appointed 

 to constitute a commission charged to express an opinion on the 

 fact which is under discussion between Dr. Bastian and M. 

 Pasteur. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The New Comet. — Elements of the new comet calculated by 

 Dr. Hartwig of Strasburg from observations to February 15 are 

 almost identical with those given in this column last week. 

 Observations have been made at Berlin, Copenhagen, Leipsic^ 

 Lund, Paris, and Strasburg. On the i6ih the comet appeared 

 to the unaided vision a little brighter than the well-known 

 cluster in Hercules, and in the telescope presented itself as a 

 round nebulosity, ten minutes in diameter, with a small central 

 nucleus : this apparent measure corresponds to a real diameter 

 of 77,000 miles. 



'i'he following ephemeris for every second midnight, Green- 

 wich time, may facilitate observations. The intensity of light is 

 assumed, as usual, to be represented by the reciprocal of the pro- 

 duct of the sijuares of the distances from the earth and sun : it 

 will be remarked that on the last date, the degree of brightness 

 is only one-sixth of that on the first date of the ephemeris : — 



' "On the FermenUtioa of Uriae ; reply to M. Pasteur." By M. H. 

 Charlton Bastian. 



The Variable-star T Coronte Borealis. — In No. 2,118 

 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, Prof. Schmidt, of Athens, 

 publishes numerous comparisons of the brightness of this star, 

 the so-called Nova of 1866, with a neighbouring star which he 

 satisfied himself is not variable, and finds that during the period 

 1866-1876 there have been fluctuations of brightness exhibiting 

 a certain regularity, from which he deduces the most probable 

 period 93-7 days. Prof. Schonfeld, at Bonn, has also noted 

 these changes, and has determined the times of maxima at which 

 the star varied from 7 '8 m. to 90 m. T Coronae therefore exhibits 

 a similar phenomenon to that already remarked about 7; Argus, 

 " Nova Ophiuchi, 184S," and the star which is almost precisely 

 in the position of Tycho Brahe's famous object of 1572. 



The Radcliffe Observations, 1874. — With the marked 

 regularity which distinguishes the publication of the Oxford ob- 

 servations, the Radcliffe observer has just circulated the thirty- 

 fourth volume of the series, containing the observations made in 

 1874. The usual contents of the handsome octavo so punctually 

 presented to us by the Rev. R. Main are too well known to 

 require any detailed account here. The heliometer has been 

 chiefly employed, as before, in the measurement of a selected list 

 of double-stars, a number of which were also observed for posi- 

 tion with the meridian circle. Observations of shooting-stars in 

 the year 1876 are included in this volume, with the view of 

 placing them early in the hands of those who are interested in 

 the study of meteoric astronomy. 



We believe we are correct in stating that the next volume will 

 contain observations of the solar spots, commenced at the Rad- 

 cliffe Observatory in 1875, and which will therefore be a new 

 feature in the publication. 



Dun Echt Observatory Publications, Vol. i. — The 

 difficulty of procuring Struve's great work, the "Mensura; 

 Micrometricae," has suggested to Lord Lindsay the formation ot 

 a summary of the measures of double-stars contained in it in a 

 convenient and portable form, which has been presented to the 

 astronomical world, as the first volume of publications of the 

 Dun Echt Observatory. The positions of the stars are brought 

 up to 1875 ; in the text Struve's first epoch is given, the subse- 

 quent ones being added in foot-notes, or in the case of binaries 

 and other stars frequently observed, in an appendix. The highest 

 and lowest powers used in the measures, the magnitudes and 

 colours of the components, and the page of the original work, 

 where the measures are to be found, are included in the sum- 

 mary. 



There can be no doubt that Lord Lindsay's volume will be 

 welcomed by a large number of amateurs, who are interested in 

 double-star astronomy, but to whom Struve's great work is diffi- 

 cult of access, to say nothing of its awkward size for frequent 

 use, when obtained. The transcript and reduction of places from 

 1826 to 1875, appears to have been made with great care, as we 

 are able to testify from a number of cases examined — including 

 instances where the variation of precession has required to be 

 taken into account. That equal care has been exercised in the 

 correction of the press, is also apparent, and as an admirable 

 specimen of astronomical typography. Lord Lindsay's summary 

 of the " Mensurae Micrometric«" is probably unsurpassed. 



