THE VITAL PHENOMENA OF BACTERIA. 113 



mark the beginning of coal formation. Van 

 Tieghem, by the microscopic examination of 

 coal, has shown that such bacterial relations 

 really do exist : 



I. 2iC 6 H 10 O 3 + uH 2 O = 26CO 2 + ioCH 4 + I2H 

 cellulose, water, marsh-gas, hydrogen 



+ I9C 2 H 4 O 2 + i3C 4 H 8 O 2 

 acetic acid, butyric acid. 



II. C 6 H 10 5 + 4H 2 = 3Cp 2 + 3H 2 + 4H 2 + 



cellulose, water, carbonic acid, water, hydrogen, 

 C 3 H 4 

 hydrocarbon. 



III. C 3 H 4 + 2H 2 = C + 2CH 4 

 hydrocarbon, hydrogen, coal, fire damp. 



Gintl looks npon the carbonic acid developed 

 by this process as the chief sonrce of the car- 

 bonic acid occurring in natural mineral waters 

 which are derived from strata of moor-coal or 

 bituminous coal. 



Blach stein 1 has discovered that various inor- 

 ganic salts are often of the greatest signifi- 

 cance for the life of bacteria, and that their cor- 

 rect selection determines whether or not some 

 of the disease-producing bacteria retain their 

 virulence. Kiihne 2 and yet more successfully, 

 Proskauer 3 succeeded in bringing about growth 

 of the tubercle bacillus by taking glycerin or 

 starch as the basis of a nutrient solution and 

 adding to it asparagin or ammonium lactate, 

 tartrate, malate or even oxalate. Or if other 



1 Berl. klin. Wochenschr., 1894, No. 17. 



2 Zeitschr., f. Biol., XXX., p. 239. 



8 Zeitschr., f. Hyg., XVIII., p. 128. 



