OF TREATMENT IN SURGERY 59 



Believing that there must be germs of various organisms adhering to the 

 interior of the narrow neck near its orifice, I thought that if I were to seal the 

 orifice, and then allow some of the liquid to pass up to its immediate vicinity, 

 I might wash down some of them into the body of the flask, and so induce other 

 growths in the urine. Accordingly, on the 20th of November, nearly a month 

 after the commencement of the experiment, I sealed the end of the tube with 

 the blow-pipe, protecting the neighbouring parts of the neck from the flame 

 as well as I could with a bit of wet lint wrapped round it. I then tilted the 

 flask so as to cause some of the urine to pass into the neck and back again ; 

 and you will observe that there is still a drop in the immediate vicinity of the 

 sealed extremity. A few days later, I imagined that I had attained my object, 

 as several minute points of growth were seen upon the surface of the liquid, 

 distinct from the original floating mass, which by this time had assumed a really 

 beautiful appearance, its upper surface being a circle of three-quarters of an 

 inch in diameter, composed of concentric rings of blue mould. But, in the 

 course of a few more days, it became evident that the new growths were of 

 identically the same species as the original floating one ; and, on the other 

 hand, that the drop near the end of the neck remained perfectly transparent, 

 instead of exhibiting fungous developments as I had anticipated. Hence 

 I inferred that the germs, which I could not doubt must have existed near the 

 orifice, had been arrested so close to it as to be destroyed by the heat of the flame. 

 Whence, then, did the new growths in the body of the flask take their origin ? 

 The answer is obvious enough. The blue mould covering the surface of the 

 original growth teemed with myriads of sporules of the fungus, and, like larger 

 plants, was ready to shed its ripe seeds when shaken ; and the tilting of the 

 flask, which had up to that time been carefully kept from disturbance, scattered 

 some of these ripe germs, which grew into organisms like their parent. About 

 a month after the sealing of the tube, all further growth of the fungi in the 

 flask ceased, and its contents have remained unchanged for the last four months, 

 except that the fungi have become shrunk and unhealthy in aspect. This 

 I attribute to the cutting off of the supply of oxygen by the seahng of the tube. 

 [This view has since been verified. On the 2nd inst. (May 1868), I broke off 

 the sealed end of the neck after scratching it with a file, leaving the flask other- 

 wise undisturbed. In four days, I detected the first indications of return of 

 the growth which had been so long suspended ; and, a few days later, the 

 dwindled and discoloured original growths were abundantly covered with fresh 

 vegetations of the same nature as before, while the surface of the fluid presented 

 multitudes of new points of develoi)ment of the same species : the unavoidable 

 motion of the liquid in conveying the flask to and from the meeting, which 



