ON LIVING ORGANISMS. 



Cheese mites immersed in water, lived for several hours. 

 A drop or two of solution of carbolic acid containing 

 one per cent, added to the water killed them instantly. 

 A few drops of the solution added to the same water 

 in which a small fish was swimming, killed it in a few 

 minutes. To water containing various infusoria 

 bacteria, vibriones, spirilla, amcebae, monads, euglenaea, 

 paramecia, rotifera, and vorticellae, a very minute 

 quantity of the solution added, proved fatal instantly, 

 arresting at once the movements of all the animal- 

 cules. 



Carbolic acid injected into blood vessels of a living 

 animal in health kills it, the circulation instantly being 

 arrested, though the blood is not coagulated. The 

 living matter of the flowing blood being killed, seems 

 to be the sole cause of the stoppage of the circu- 

 lation. 



Carbolic Acid a Test of Vital Phenomena. The 

 powerful action which carbolic acid exerts on vital 

 phenomena, renders it, in Mr. Crookes' opinion, the 

 " test proper for distinguishing vital from purely 

 physical phenomena," possessing, as it undoubtedly 

 does, an action characterised in almost all cases by 

 the certainty and definiteness of a chemical reagent. 

 In its presence embryonic life is impossible ; under its 

 powerful influence all minute forms of life perish. 

 Experimentalists in France have over and over again 

 tested its destructive power upon the living particles 

 of vaccine lymph. If thoroughly mixed with a mere 



