Royal Society. 129 



Alcohol added to tlu' senun causes a niovcmont of exosmose 

 from tlie interior of the globules to the serum. The globules 

 lose a part of their constituent liquids ; and this alteration, 

 which brings on others, is no doubt reproduced in the cells of 

 the various tissues which are bathed by alcoholized li(juids. 



What it is now my intentii>n to ])r()ve is, that in the blood 

 in ])articular, and in every living organism of analogous con- 

 btitution (that is to say, formed by cells or utricles iilled with 

 H liquid and tloating in or bathed by a li([uid), it is sufficient to 

 alter, even slightly, the chemical composition of the exterior 

 liquid to cause that of the interior liquid to become modified 

 by endosmose or exosmose. 



As soon as I am enabled to resume possession of my labo- 

 ratory, if I should ever sef it again, I propose to follow out 

 the develojjment and application of this principle, either to 

 demonstrate the eftects produced by the action of common salt, 

 alcohol, &c. upon the blood, or to show how rapid is that of 

 some agents, of which I have already examined the action, 

 upon the constitution of the globules. 



In the mean time I have yielded to the wishes of your emi- 

 nent President, and I lay upon the table the ex])Osition of 

 those investigations which time may cause to fnictify either in 

 my own or more worthy hands. It is a homage that it is a 

 pleasure to my old age to offer to that kind Society which, 

 having, in 1816, guided my youth and the first steps of my 

 career, offers me for the second time, in 1871, after an interval 

 of half a century, the asylum of its friendly hospitality under 

 grievous circumstances to my country. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



May 11, 1871. — General Sir Edward Sabine, K.C.B., President, 

 in the Chair. 



"Action of Heat on Protoplasmic Life." By F. Crace-Calvert, 

 F.R.S. 



Those investigators of germ-life who favour the theory of spon- 

 taneous generation have assumed that a temperature of 212° Fahr., 

 or the boihng-poiut of the fluid which they cxj)eriuieuted upon, was 

 sutlicient to destroy all protoplasmic life, and that the life they sub- 

 sequently observed in these fluids was developed from nou-liviug 

 matter. 



I therefore made several series of experiments, in the hope that 

 they might throw some light on the subject. 



The tirst series was made with a tugar solution, the second with 



