
EXPERIMENTS WITH SALINE SOLUTIONS 247 
organisms will often be found to multiply beneath 
the cover glass, and in the case of some Torule, 
instead of continuing to divide, they may begin to 
develop hyphe, on their way to the formation of the 
characteristic mycelia of common Moulds. 
Still, a word of warning is required concerning the 
examination of deposits taken from saline solutions 
generally. Bodies are frequently met with simulat- 
ing Micrococciand Diplococci, and even Bacilli and 
Torulz, which are yet nothing more than lifeless 
inorganic concretions—they are really incipient or 
abortive crystals. These bodies are especially 
common in the flakes of silica where the solutions 
have been heated to high temperatures, and have 
subsequently been kept for several weeks before 
their examination. In some cases they most 
closely simulated Micrococci or Bacteria, and they 
have been distributed through the flakes in just the 
same manner that real Micrococci or Bacteria are 
distributed in other cases. 
These high temperatures cannot be borne even 
by saline solutions without some amount of change 
and degradation taking place, as evidence of which 
I may cite the following facts, though, of course, 
many other changes that occur would not be of a 
kind to reveal themselves by any visual characters. 
In two tubes which contained a weak though 
perfectly clear solution of ammonium carbonate 
and sodic phosphate, after being exposed to 165° C. 
for 20’, the fluid was noted at the time to have be- 
come ‘‘rather turbid and to contain a distinct white 

