280 ON THE GERM THEORY OF PUTREFACTION 
the air of the room ; one was exposed for nine and a half hours ; and the other 
two (those with the porcelain covers), were, in the first instance, not exposed at 
all. The one exposed for nine and a-half hours to the air, showed, in four days, 
besides some minute plants of filamentous fungi, opaque spots in the cloud of 
mucous deposit, and next day the liquid was turbid with perfectly character- 
istic and abundant bacteria, and had acquired a rank, strong odour. The urine 
exposed for forty minutes showed indeed no bacteria, nor any torulae or other 
organisms except three plants of filamentous fungi, which appeared to be of 
three different species, judging from their differences in density and rate of 
growth. They continued to grow until at last they almost filled the wine-glass, 
the fluid above them retaining its transparency unimpaired. When they had 
grown too large for their wine-glass, I transferred them to a large goblet into 
which urine had been passed, with the same sort of antiseptic precautions as were 
before described, after the goblet had been heated along with its saucer-like 
cover, and allowed to cool under a glass shade, packed round its base with cotton- 
wool to exclude dust. In this goblet the fungi continued to develop ; and one 
growing more rapidly than the rest at length overlapped and smothered them, 
and then continued to grow alone till, by the end of January, ten weeks after 
the commencement of the experiment, the goblet was almost full of the delicate 
white filamentous mass, which, with the bright unaltered amber-coloured liquid 
above, presented a very beautiful appearance. At length, in the early part of 
February, I observed that the whole urine had become turbid, and at the same 
time the fungus, which before had continued to grow steadily upwards, had 
suddenly collapsed into about a third of its former volume. On examination 
I found that the liquid had a strong smell, and contained multitudes of minute 
granules grouped irregularly in a different manner from that which prevails 
among bacteria. In bacteria, where more than two constituent elements are 
connected together, they are commonly arranged in a linear series, constituting 
what are termed leptothrix filaments, as seen in Plate VI, Fig. 3 6 and Fig. 4. 
3ut in the case of these granules, when three or four were associated, they never 
showed themselves in a line, and when only two were together the members 
of the pair were often dissimilar in size. Yet, though unlike bacteria, there 
could be little doubt that these granules were some species of organism, and 
the natural interpretation was that it had found its way into the glass, and, 
developing in the urine, had rendered it poisonous for the fungus, just as is 
commonly seen when bacteria grow along with Penicillium Glaucum in urine. 
The bacteria occasion putrefaction in the fluid, and when this has advanced to 
a certain degree the growth of the penicillium is arrested. 
[ had before met with granules of similar size and grouping. They occurred 
