 Fuly 14, 1870 | 
size of about z5350” in diameter no nucleus was visible, though 
_ they had by this time assumed a distinctly vesicular appearance. 
_ As the spores increased in size, the thick wall gradually became 
more manifest—though it had a rather rough granular appear- 
ance—and a nucleus gracually showed itself within, which was 
; also granular.* The next morning, after twelve hours, the 
spores seemed to be much in the same condition, though 
i numerous small colonies (30 to 50 in each) of motionless bacteria 
were now visible. During the day the air was clear, and 
the temperature lower (76° F.) ; and after twelve hours more (in 
2000000 @ Q® 
ma ! gs 
Fic 19.—Representing different stages in the development of Fungus- 
spores in a solution of Carbonate of Ammonia. 
the evening) the bacteria were found to have considerably in- 
creased in number, and several of the fungus-spores were seen in 
a more deyoloped condition—their thick walls being wholly or 
partially consolidated, and the nucleus was also more distinctly 
defined. In this condition they perfectly resembled the spores 
which were found in Z.xferiment 20, and very closely resembled 
those which are to be met with in some of the old tartrate of am- 
monia crystals. The great majority of the spores were, how- 
ever, still in the granular condition, and they seemed to have 
made no advance whatever. On the following day these spores 
were not quite so distinct—some of them seemed to be disin- 
tegrating, whilst none of them had undergone any further de- 
velopment. The bacteria, on the contrary, had decidedly in- 
creased in quantity. After two days more, minute Zorv/a cells 
began to appear. These did not rapidly multiply, but soon 
began to develope into mycelial filaments. 
The thick-walled spores had possibly come into existence under 
the influence of the high temperature and the disturbed electri- 
cal condition of the atmosphere +; and they seemed to be so 
much the creatures of these conditions that they were unable to 
survive under others which were different. 
The mode, then, in which fungus-spores make their appear- 
ance in a solution of carbonate or tartrate of ammonia, seems to 
show that they must have originated in all parts of the solution, 
either by a coalescence and re-arrangement of the invisible 
molecules of a fre-existing colloidal compound,t or else 
through the development of innumerable but invisible ‘‘ germs,” 
which were disseminated through the liquid. That such in- 
visible ‘‘germs” may have existed in the form of colloidal 
molecules, I am quite disposed to believe—though I am as 
strongly inclined to disbelieve that these fluids were saturated 
with ‘‘ germs” of veritable fungus-spores, which had emanated 
from some pre-existing fungus of the same kind. We may grant 
that germs were there é7z fosse, though not 7 esse. What warrant 
have we, indeed, for talking of actual though zzz7sib/e fungus 
“‘eerms’’? No one can know more concerning their existence or 
formation than I know concerning the coalescence of colloidal 
molecules into minutest specks of Living matter. The necessity 
for the postulation of such ‘‘ germs” must, therefore, seem dif- 
ferent to different people, in accordance with the particular views 
which they may hold concerning Life. Those who believe in 
a special ‘‘ vital principle” may naturally enough cling to the 
notion of a pre-existing germ, which may be the direct recipient 
of this peculiar power from some pre-existing organism; whilst 
those who are believers, rather, in the physical doctrines of Life 
will, I think, gradually find themselves contented with the pre- 
existence of potential ‘‘germs” in the form of colloidal mo- 
lecules, 
ee 
* This appearance I had not unfrequently seen before, where such 
spores had been developing in saline solutions, and it had always strongly 
suggested the notion to me that these spores were formed by a coalescence 
of granular particles. Here, however, there were no granules or moving 
Particles present, the spores themselves were the only Living things, and it 
seemed quite certain that they could not have originated after this fashion. 
‘They obviously commenced as minute specks, and the granular appearance 
manifested itself so long as they were still increasing in size. When growth 
stopped consolidation began to take place, and an even double-contoured 
wall soon replaced that which was before irregular and granular. 
+ We may, perhaps, connect this possibility with the well-known fact that 
milk, beer, and other fluids are so very prone to turn sour during a thunder- 
storm, or whilst it is threatening. 
t One which had existed before the organisms made their appearance, but 
which was the product of an isomeric modification of the carbonate of 
ammonia itself, 
NATURE 
ees} 
aS, 
(c.) We find, also, associated with different sets of condi- 
tions, different kinds of Living things. In none of the crystals of 
tartrate ofammonia have I ever found a single distinct bacterium, 
and there has been the same complete absence of organisms of 
this kind in all my experimental fluids containing tartrate of 
ammonia and phosphate of soda, which have been sealed up 7 
vacuo, This agreement is very striking, seeing that whenever a 
similar fluid, or a solution of tartrate of ammonia alone, is exposed 
to the air, then bacteria appear in abundance.* ‘There is a 
marked accordance then between the organisms which are pro- 
duced in the experimental tubes 7 vacuo, and those which come 
from the cavities within the crystals. There is the strongest 
reason for believing that the organisms which were met with 
within one of these experimental tubes must have been 
evolved de wove, since the existing state of our knowledge 
does not entitle us to believe that any such pre-existing Living 
thing could continue to live after it had been exposed to a tem- 
perature of from to 146° to 153°C. for four hours; and so we derive 
an additional presumption in favour of the de xove origination 
within the crystals, of those minutest specks of Living matter, 
which, as we have seen, are capable of developing into such 
fungus-spores as are there to be found. 
In the face of this much more severe test (Zxferiment 19) it is 
needless to insist upon the results of other experiments in which 
the solutions were merely exposed to a temperature of 100°C. 
The fungus-sporcs which exist within the crystals of tartrate of 
ammonia do not differ, however, from all other fungus-spores that 
have been made the objects of experimentation, They too will 
not germinate after they have been exposed for one minute to 
a temperature of 100°C. I have taken spores and filaments 
from a crystal, and one half of them I have boiled for about a 
minute whilst the others have not been heated at all. The two 
patches have then been placed, at some little distance from one 
another, in the same growing box, with a few drops of a solution 
of tartrate of ammonia. ‘The spores which had been boiled 
did not germinate, but those which had not been heated soon 
began to develope filaments. The pre-existing confervoid- 
looking organism, also, in the one case underwent no change, 
whilst in the other it grew into a distinct fungus—its filaments 
widening out till they became about four times as broad 
as they were originally. These unmistakeable fungus-filaments 
showed dissepiments at intervals dividing them into chambers, 
within which were contained large irregular blocks of proto- 
plasm. Occasionally a filament larger than the others, might be 
seen terminating with a broad convex extremity, and afterwards 
there gradually appeared on the surface of this the minutest 
dot-like projections, which slowly increased in size and number. 
The larger of them soon became vesicular, and after a time 
within the vesicle granules began to cluster so as to constitute a 
nucleus. Thus were watched the early stages of the development of 
a head of fructification similar to, although much smaller than that 
which is represented in Fig. 17. The rate of growth was generally 
very slow, and after a time development ceased in my growing 
box, apparently because the conditions were not suitable for the 
evolution of such an organism as did grow luxuriantly enough 
within my experimental flasks. These observations were, how- 
ever, extremely interesting, because I was thus able to trace all 
the stages in development, on oneand the same plant, from mere 
granular abortive-looking Zeftofhrix threads, only s54;," in dia- 
meter, which gradually grew into a distinct confervoid-looking 
tube, having broken masses of protoplasm within, into slowly 
widening and dissepimented fungus-filaments, that were capable 
* There is another difference also which deserves to be pointed out. 
The crystals of tartrate of ammonia or of phosphate of soda have never shown 
a trace of the Spiral-fibre organisms or of Sarcina (Fig. 13), and yet when 
the two have been mixed, in several of the fluids which have been kept 
wt vacuo, the Spiral-fibre organism has appeared, and, similarly, on two 
out of three occasions when this mixture has been exposed to the air 
Sarcina has made its appearance. In one of the solutions 7% vacuo con- 
taining carbonate of ammonia and phosphate of soda, a somewhat similar 
Spiral-fibre has been found, and in the other Sarcina was met with. Both 
these organisms therefore seem dependent upon the presence of phos- 
phates, and it is worthy of note that hitherto Savciza has, so far as I am 
aware, never been known to exist except in one of the fluids of the animal 
body where phosphates naturally or unnaturally are present. At first 
Sarcina was discovered by Goodsir in the contents of the stomach, then 
it was found in the urine, and afterwards within the ventricles of the brain 
by Sir Wm. Jenner. And now I meet wth it in solutions containing 
an ammoniacal salt and a phosphate. M. Pasteur has (Ann. de Chim. 
et de Phys., 1862, Pl. 11., fig. 27, K., and p. 80) figured, and alludes 
to an “Algue formée de cellules quaternaires, déposée sous forme de pré- 
cipitaté,” upon the walls of a flask which had contained ‘‘l’eau de leviire 
non sucrée,” and which certainly, if not Sexciva, must be very closely allied 
thereto, 
