200 
#xperiment 18.—The tube containing white sugar, tartrate of 
ammonia, and phosphate of soda in distilled water, was opened 
on the fortieth day after it had been heated in the digester, 
When received from Dr, Frankland, this solution, instead of 
being colourless, was of a dark brownish-black colour, not unlike 
that of porter, this change of colour being apparently due to the 
conversion of some of the sugar into caramel; though it was 
free from any notable deposit. After about the fortieth day a 
thick iridescent scum ahiily formed over the whole surface}, 
and continued visible for more than a week. It afterwards 
disappeared, and then I noticed for the first time a large quantity 
of a brownish-black sediment at the bottom of the flask. No 
scum again formed on the surface, and no other change was seen 
to take place in the fluid. 
When opened there was no very appreciable odour, though 
the reaction of the fluid was strongly acid, 
On microscopical examination, the deposit was found to be 
made up in great part of dark, reddish-brown, or ruby-red 
coloured globules of various sizes, partly single, and partly in 
various kinds of aggregation. They varied in size froma minute 
speck spteo” in diameter up to large spherule yqyg” in diameter. 
‘They presented no trace of structure, and were apparently quite 
homogeneous. Although larger, they eons in other 
respects those which had been met with in the turnip solu- 
tion. Other bodies, however, were seen, which presented 
much more obvious evidence of being concretions. ‘They were 
mostly light brown in colour, some of the smaller somewhat 
resembling cells, with granular contents, whilst some of the larger, 
about gy'ey” in diameter, showed concentric markings, with or 
without the presence of a darker central nucleus of varying size. 
Some again were composite structures—each spheroidal as a 
whole, though made up of a close radiating aggregation of 
ovoidal bodies around sucha central nucleus. None of these 
spherules showed any colour reactions with the polariscope. I 
regarded them all as non-living concretions of a doubtful nature 
Two fresh looking fungus-spores were seen, however, of the- 
most unmistakeable character. One, apparently just about to 
sprout, was yyy” in diameter ; it had thick walls and a large 
central nucleus yg}oy" in diameter. ‘The other was a smaller 
and more delicate-looking body, having more the appearance of 
a Torula cell. There were also some figure-of-cight-shaped 
bodies about wp}y5" in diameter, which were moving about most 
actively. 
In addition, there were a multitude of particles altogether 
irregular in shape, in most active movement, having a proto- 
plasmic appearance. Some were altogether irregular particles 
others were larger and more elaborate masses; whilst others 
—still exhibiting slow movements—were lozenge-shaped, or more 
or less cuboidal, 
Experiment 19.—The tube containing tartrate of ammonia and 
hosphate of soda in distilled water was opened on the sixty- 
Ftth day. 
When received from Dr, Frankland, the solution in this tube 
was quite colourless, clear, and free from visible deposit. About 
the fifth or sixth day, however, after it had been suspended 
in a warm place, a number of small, pale, bluish-white 
flocculi made their appearance throughout the solution, and con- 
tinued always in the same situation except when the fluid 
was shaken, —owing apparently to their specific weight being the 
same as that of the fluid itself. The contents of the flask were 
repeatedly scanned with the greatest care with the aid of a lens, 
though nothing else could be seen until about the expiration of 
amonth, Then there was observed, attached to one of the floceuli 
about 4" from the bottom of the vessel, a small, opaque, whitish 
speck, little bigger than a pin’s point. This increased very 
slowly in size for the next three or four weeks, and then another 
smaller mass also made its appearance. At the expiration of 
this time the larger mass was more than $" in diameter, and 
both could be and were seen by several people with the naked 
eye. In the last three weeks previous to the opening of the flask 
it was often remarked that the mass did not appear to have at all 
increased in size. 
Before the flask was opened it was found that it only acted 
as a water-hammer to a trifling extent, though when the narrow 
end of the flask was broken off there was a slight dull report, 
anda quantity of small particles of glass were swept by the 
afterwards publish), Zoru/a cells, and fungus-spores with developing fila- 
ments, were formed in very large numbers, in company with other living 
organisms. 
* This was much larger than that exposed in the other three vessels, 
owing to the fluid being contained in a small flask instead of in a tube. 
NATURE 
There had still, then, been a partial 
to be 
in-rush of air into the fluid. 
vacuum in the flask, The reaction of the fluid was foun 
slightly acid. 
This flask was opened in Dr. Sharpey’s presence. He had ex- 
amined the white masses previously witha pocket-len , and when 
the flask was broken the larger white mass issued with some of 
the first portions of the fluid, which were poured into a large 
watch-glass, This was at once taken up on the point of a pen- 
knife and transferred toa clean glass slip, when it was immersed 
in a drop of the experimental fluid and then protected by a thin 
glass cover. On microscopical examination we at once saw that 
the whitish mass was composed of a number of rounded and 
ovoidal spores, with mycelial filaments issuing from them in all 
Fic. 17.—Fungus obtained from a solution of Tartrate of Ammonia and 
Phosphate of Soda which had been exposed toa temperature varying between 
146° and 153° C. for four hours. 
stages of development. ‘The spores varied much in shape and 
dimensions ; the prevalent size being about z255” in diameter, 
though one was seen as much as zy'55” in diameter. They all 
possessed a single rather large nucleus, which was mostly made 
up of an aggregationof granular particles. Some were just 
beginning to develope mycelial filaments, and others had 
already given origin to such filaments about zy55” in dia- 
meter, in which there were scattered some colourless proto- 
plasmic granules, but no vacuoles. Contiguous to these fresh 
and evidently Living portions of the plant, there were other parts 
in all stages of decay, in which the remains of the filaments were 
seen in the form of more or less irregular rows of brownish 
granules representing the altered protoplasmic contents ef a 
previous filament whose walls were now often scarcely visible. 
Subsequently the smaller white mass was picked out, and this was 
found to containsome living mycelium and spores, and also a con- 
siderable patch of decaying filaments, inconnection with which ther 
was a long and broader filament bearing at its distal extremity a 
large aggregation of more than 100 spores, quite naked, and ve’ 
similar in character to those from which the mycelial threads 
arose, This plant was evidently a Penicillium quite similar to 
what had been obtained from a tartrate of ammonia and phosphate 
of soda solution on a previous occasion after twenty-one days 
(Experiment 13), and its spores were also similiar to those which 
had appeared in another solution (Zaferiment 11) of the same 
kind after eleven days. 
The delicate flocculi which first made their appearance in the 
solution, and which persisted throughout, seemed to be made up 
of aggregations of the finest granules, which, however, became 
almost invisible when the flocculi were mounted in glycerine and 
carbolic acid. 
Lxperiment 20.—The tube containing carbonate of ammonia 
and phosphate of soda in distilled water, was opened on the 
thirtieth day in the presence of Prof. Huxley. 
When this flask was received from Dr. Frankland, the fluid 
was somewhat whitish and clouded, During the last ten days a 
thin pellicle had been seen gradually accumulating on its surface, 
and in the latter four or five days this increased much in thickness, 
and gradually assumed adistinct mucoid appearance. The fluid 
itself was tolerably clear, though an apparent turbidity was given 
by the presence of a fine whitish deposit on the sides of the glass, 
cet et tn, eats 
