468 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



their appearance in the solution, and which persisted 

 throughout, were gelatinous and made up of aggre- 

 gations of the finest granules. These, however, became 

 almost invisible when mounted in glycerine and car- 

 bolic acid. 



Experiment z. A solution containing eight grains of 

 ammonic tartrate, and three grains of sodic phosphate, 

 in one ounce of New River water (from the tap). 



On dissolving the crystals in this water, a small 

 amount of fine white precipitate was produced. After 

 the tube was taken from the digester a fine white de- 

 posit soon subsided. No cloud-like flocculi appeared, 

 and no further change was discovered in the solution. 

 The tube was opened on the sixty-sixth day, after the 

 vacuum had been ascertained to be still well preserved. 

 The fluid had a neutral reaction, and on microscopical 

 examination no living things could be found, either in 

 it or amongst the amorphous granules of the sediment V 



In addition to the experiments now recorded, I have 

 performed twenty others in which the tubes and solu- 



examined microscopically. The plant was completely disorganised : not a 

 single entire spore could be found ; they were all broken up into small 

 and more or less irregular particles, and the filaments were more or less 

 empty containing no definite contents, and being only represented by 

 torn tubular fragments of various sizes. 



1 New River water was used in this case with the view of seeing how 

 the results would be modified. It probably contained too much lime- 

 salts and other saline constituents. Germs, of course, may have been 

 present in abundance, and yet no living things were subsequently to be 

 found. 



