306 ON THE GERM THEORY OF PUTREFACTION 
new habitat, but increased so slowly that after the lapse of six weeks the 
little woolly mass which lay at the bottom of the glass had only grown to 
the height of an eighth of an inch, while the patch of scum was but very 
slightly larger than before, and a mere trace of granular deposit was seen 
upon the glass. 
But though the growth of the organism in this medium had been so ex- 
tremely languid, it had effected a very remarkable change in its constitution, 
the liquid, though still clear, having been altered from its original crystal purity 
to a deep rich brown colour, like that of porter. 
It happened that I had inoculated another glass of this same albuminous 
fluid seven weeks previously with another very delicate filamentous fungus, 
which I must not here describe. The species had developed very luxuriantly, 
so as to occupy the greater part of the liquid with its white woolly growth, and 
clamber some distance up the inside of the glass above. Yet the colour of the 
fluid was scarcely altered at all, having a barely perceptible pale brownish 
tinge, and this circumstance made the great effect of the scanty growth of the 
Oidium Toruloides the more striking. At the same time, the dark brown liquid 
was entirely destitute of odour, and thus I obtained for the first time demon- 
stration of what I have long suspected, as the result of experience in antiseptic 
surgery, viz. that an albuminous fluid may be affected with a fermentative 
change without the occurrence of smell. I have seen, for example, a psoas 
abscess furnish merely a slight oozing of serous discharge under antiseptic 
management, till a single careless application of the dressing admitted, as I 
believed, some fermentative organism, which, without giving rise to any odour, 
so altered the character of the discharge, as to stimulate the diseased part to 
profuse suppuration, leading to death by hectic. I have also observed erysipelas 
occur in spite of antiseptic treatment, and occasion profuse suppuration without 
smell, although from analogy there is reason to suspect that the virus of that 
disorder is of the nature of an organism, operating as a ferment upon the animal 
fluids. Facts such as these had often led me to express the view which at the 
time might be regarded as transcendental, but which the above observation 
proved to be a truth. 
Thus this single insignificant species, when subjected to the precise method 
of investigation which I have described, afforded proof of several important 
general truths, which may thus be recapitulated. 
1. It shows how greatly such organisms may vary under the modifying 
influence of different media. 
2. It affords another clear example of the origin of a torula from a fila- 
mentous fungus. 
