222 
and thereisalmostas much reason for believing that the confervoid- 
looking filaments and the fungus-spores have undergone a process 
of growth and development within such cavities. Other facts, 
which seem to lend an increased probability to this supposition, 
will shortly be detailed. But if ‘‘the conditions” are favour- 
able enough to permit, or even to stimulate the molecular 
activity of certain Living particles, and if such molecular 
activity, whereby the Living speck grows and deyelopes, is 
but the modified manifestation of the physical forces acting 
thereupon, I see no theoretical reason why the self-same physical 
forces acting upon the self-same materials should not have been 
able, in the same place, to zz¢/ate a molecular collocation similar 
to that which they now help to build up from moment to moment. 
We have been, perhaps, only too much in the habit of looking 
upon this as impossible. But let us sweep away this habit of 
mind for the moment, let us look at the facts as they are, and 
will it be at all easier for us, who believe in no special ‘* vital 
principle,” to understand how from moment to moment non- 
living matter is converted into matter which lives? However 
little we may understand it, this process is continually taking 
place in all growing representatives of the vegetable kingdom, 
and no one ever thinks of doubting that it does take place 
because he is unable to understand ow it occurs. If it were 
once conceded that a de ovo evolution of specks of Living matter 
were possible, then I think most physiologists would at once 
admit that where specks of Living matter are able to grow and 
develope, there also they may be quite capable of originating. 
(2.) The matter of the crystals of tartrate of ammonia is, 
by a re-arrangement of its atoms, quite capable of giving origin 
to organisable compounds. If a small quantity of tartrate of 
ammonia is dissolved in a watch-glass with distilled water, and 
is protected as much as possible from dust and evaporation by 
being covered with a wine-glass from which the stem has been 
broken, and then again with a tumbler, it will be found during 
warm weather, that in the course of two or three days the bottom 
of the watch-glass is covered by a number of minute microscopic 
crystals, interspersed amongst a mixed layer composed of monads, 
bacteria, and minute Zorw/a cells.* These organisms form, in 
fact, almost as freely (though more slowly) in the ammoniacal 
solution, as they do in an ordinary infusion containing organic 
matter. There can be little doubt that the amount of ammonia 
and of tartaric acid actually diminishes, and that the elements of 
these enter into new combinations. 
It may be said, however, that such changes do not take 
place by the mere action of physical forces upon the un- 
stable molecules of the dissolved tartrate of ammonia, and 
that Living ferments are necessary for the initiation of such 
molecular re-arrangements. In answer to this I can only call 
attention to the fact that similar changes must have taken place 
in the fluids within the experimental tubes which were submitted 
by Dr. Frankland to a temperature varying from 146° to 153° C. 
for four hours, and that there is not one tittle of evidenceat present 
existing to show that any Living thing could live through such an 
exposure, whilst there are very strong reasons indeed which 
should incline us to believe that no Living thing could be sub- 
jected to such a temperature without being hopelessly destroyed. 
Therefore in these cases it would appear that such molecular re- 
arrangements must have been initiated without the intervention of 
Living ferments, and thus, too, they would appear to be com- 
parable with those that are known to take place in a solution 
of cyanate of ammonia. Here ‘‘spontaneously,” or with the 
aid of a little heat only, a molecular re-arrangement occurs, 
and the saline cyanate of ammonia is replaced by a colloidal 
compeund, urea. In order to effect this transformation, no 
Living ferments are necessary—none have been even supposed to 
exist, and there is, really, no more reason why we should imagine 
their presence to be necessary in order that tartrate of ammonia 
may undergo a more or less similar isomeric transformation. 
A careful examination of the mode in which bacteria and 
Torula cells appear at the bottom of a watch-glass containing 
form in those crystals which are not perfect in shape, and which present a 
more or less opaque appearance in their interior. ‘hese less perfect types 
are probably for that reason more prone to undergo molecular changes under 
the influence of incident forces, especially in the neighbourhood of and around 
some fibre-fragment which has been enclosed. 
* In saline solutions I have generally seen the organisms first, and have 
found them accumulated principally at the do¢¢o7 of the watch-glass or other 
vessel in which the solution may have been contained. 
+ Saline solutions in which spores of fungi were placed, having been 
analysed previously by M. Pasteur, were again analysed by him after the 
plants had grown fora time. The proportion of ammonia and of other in- 
gredients was found to have undergone a diminution correlative with the 
growth of the plants. 
NATURE 
[Fuly 14, 1870 
tartrate of ammonia in solution is also rather valuable on 
account of its bearing upon this question. What is true of the 
Torula cells is also true concerning the mode of origin of 
bacteria ; the facts, however, can be ascertained rather more 
satisfactorily concerning tue Zorzla cells, and for the sake of 
brevity I shall now speak only of them. These Zoru/a cells, 
like the bacteria in their earlier stages, are motionless ; although, 
therefore, they increase rapidly after one or more have been 
formed by a process of pullulation and growth, the numerous 
quite distinct patches which may be seen scattered over the 
bottom of the watch-glass, often at well marked distances from 
one another, represent so many distinct centres of origin, In~ 
these several patches there may be seen delicate ovoid Zoru/a 
cells of almost any size beneath y;47" in diameter. The larger 
cells exist united in little groups of twos and threes, and budding 
from them may be seen pullulating projections of different sizes. 
Separate cells, also, may be seen, smaller and smaller in size, 
till at last they cease to be cellular in form, and we see only 
peculiarly refractive dots or specks less than ;;4y5” in diameter. 
In other places a colony of Zorz/a cells seems to be about to grow 
up. Here there may be seen merely one or two of the smallest 
bodies which distinctly display the cellular form interspersed 
amongst a variabie number of the refractive specks of all sizes 
down to the minimum visible stage.* Beyond this, of course, 
all is darkness. We must be guided by other evidence in 
forming an opinion as to the probable source or mode of origina- 
tion of these specks of Living matter, which are so extremely 
minute that they only just come within the range of our aided 
vision. 
Another remarkable observation made upon a simple solu- 
tion of carbonate of ammonia, ina watch-glass, makes still clearer 
the fact of the disseminated origin of organisms in such solu- 
tions. It throws light also upon the previous question as to 
whether the fungus-spores were developed within the crystals of 
tartrate ofammonia from specks of Living matter, or whether they 
were mechanically enclosed in their developed form ; and it is 
sufficiently suggestive as to the possible influence of electrical 
conditions in promoting evolutional changes. Referring to notes 
made at the time, I extract the following particulars. About 
eleven P.M. on the 14th of the present month (June) a small 
quantity of ordinary sesquicarbonate of ammonia was dissolved in 
some apparently pure (though not distilled) water, in a watch- 
glass. After solution, and in about an hour's time, the fluid was 
carefully examined with different microscopic powers, and lastly 
the bottom of the watch-glass was scrutinised in very many situa- 
tions with an immersion ;’;” object-glass. No Living thing of 
any kind was seen, though scattered over the bottom of the glass 
were a large number of tiny crystals, some larger and some 
smaller than yyy” in diameter. Under the polariscope they 
gave the most beautiful and varied colour reactions. The watch- 
glass was then placed on a mantel-piece with a soft surface 
(covered with velvet), a wine-glass, with its stem broken off, 
was inverted over it, and this again was covered by a tumbler, 
in order, as much as possible, to prevent evaporation and keep 
out dust. After twenty-four hours the bottom of the watch-glass 
was again carefully examined, with the +” object-glass, and no 
change was observable. There were the same minute crystals, 
perhaps rather more numerous than before, but no recognisable 
specks of protoplasm or other trace of living things. The 
watch-glass was then replaced as before. The next day (June 
16) the weather was hot and extremely sultry. The tempera- 
ture was about 85° F. in the shade, and the thunder-storm, 
which seemed imminent during the whole of the day, began 
about 7 P.M., and continued till the early hours of the 
morning of the following day. At about 11.30 P.M. of this 16th 
of June, I again examined the solution in the watch-glass—forty- 
eignt hours after it had been prepared. Then, scattered over 
the whole of the bottom of the glass, fungus-spores were seen 
in all stages of development intermixed with the small crystals. 
They were quite motionless, and mostly separate, rather than in 
distinct groups. They varied in size from the minutest visible 
speck up to a spherical nucleated body 3,455” in diameter. No 
moving particles or bacteria were seen. Probably more than a 
thousand of these bodies were developing in the one watch-glass 
—each growing in its own place, and showing no evidence of 
multiplication by division or pullulation, Until they attained the 
* When such a patch is marked, and watched at different intervals, a crop 
of perfect Toru/a cells is soon seen to occupy this same situation. And it 
may be well to state here that Savcima@ also makes its appearance after a 
fashion which is essentially similar, 
