Fan. 19, 1871] 
NATURE 
22 

them were domesticated, though some human remains 
from neighbouring tumuli and interments are reported 
on by Dr. Pruner-Bey. The animals whose bones oc- 
curred are described as ox (possibly domesticated), pig, 
stag, sheep, goat, and horse, which is rare. The bones 
are not always broken, and the vertebrz occasionally 
occurred in juxtaposition, as if meat at times had been 
extremely abundant. There is no mention of any remains 
or traces of dogs, and this condition of the bones seems 
to afford an argument in favour of their absence, which, 
if established, would be a remarkable fact. Some teeth 
of reindeer are mentioned as having been found on the 
plateau, and it would be of great interest to ascertain their 
relation to the other remains. Let us trust that ere long 
there may again be a season in France when a though 
may fairly be bestowed on other camps and other earth- 
works than those on which attention is now so unfortu- 
nately concentrated. eee: 



SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 
HAVE repeatedly subjected yarious solutions for Dr. Bastian 
to a temperature of 150° to 156° C. in sealed vacuous tubes, 
in order that he might afterwards submit them to a microscopical 
search for living organisms. The result of this search led him 
to conclude that living organisms had been generated from 
non-organised matter, whilst Professor Huxley, who examined 
the contents of one of the tubes, considered that no such conclu- 
sion could be drawn from his own observations. I therefore 
determined to repeat these experiments, operating in exactly the 
same manner as before in the preparation of the solutions, the 
sealing them up in vacuous tubes, and exposing them to a high 
temperature, but taking additional and much more stringent pre- 
cautions against the subsequent admission of atmospheric germs 
into the tubes. 
For this purpose four tubes of hard Bohemian glass were pre- 
pared, and about half-filled with a liquid consisting of 
Carbonate of Ammonia . . . I5 grains. 
Phosphate of Soda. . . . . 5 grains. 
Distilled Water™.) os) 10z. , 
No care was taken to exclude living germs from these ingredients, 
reliance being placed, for the destruction of their vitality, upon 
the high temperature to which they were afterwards subjected. 
These tubes were carefully exhausted by means of the Sprengel 
pump, and hermetically sealed ; they were then, on July 18, 
1870, exposed for four hours to a temperature varying from 155° 
to 160° C. ina Papin’s digester. After being allowed to cool, 
the digester was opened, and the tubes immediately plunged, 
two of them into colourless concentrated oil of vitriol, and the 
remaining two into a nearly colourless saturated solution of car- 
bolic acid in water. These precautions were taken in order to 
avoid the possible admission of atmospheric germs through in- 
visible cracks in the glass ; such cracks, entirely invisible to the 
eye, are known sometimes to exist, and to be in some cases 
so excessively minute as to require several days for the admis- 
sion of enough air to perceptibly impair a torricellian vacuum 
within. By keeping the tubes entirely immersed in liquids 
which are immediately fatal to vitality, I hoped to meet any 
objections that might be raised, in the event of living organ- 
isms being subsequently found in the tubes, that the germs 
of such organisms had gained access to the enclosed liquids 
through invisible fissures inthe glass. On examining them when 
they came out of the digester, it was evident that the interior 
walls of the glass tubes had been corroded by the enclosed liquid, 
and as the tubes had stood upright in the digester, it was easy to 
see, by the sharp limits of the erosion, the extent to which the 


liquid had expanded under the influence of the high temperature 
to which it had been exposed. 
The cylinders containing the immersed tubes were now main- 
tained at a temperature from 60° to 75° F., and were exposed to 
bright diffused daylight, and sometimes to sunlight, for a period 
of more than five months, 
The liquid in all the tubes became more or less turbid, and in 
some cases a small quantity of a light flocculent precipitate sub- 
sided to the bottom. On the 24th of December last two of the 
tubes, which exhibited the greatest turbidity, were selected for 
examination (one of them had been immersed in concentrated 
sulphuric acid, the other in the solution of carbolic acid). The 
vacuum was unimpaired, and the liquid in the interior formed a 
good water hammer. These tubes were opened in the presence 
of Prof. Huxley and Mr. Busk, and we submitted their contents 
toa searching microscopical examination with powers varying 
from {th to th. Especially was the flocculent sediment in the 
tubes subjected to careful inspection. So far as the optical 
appearances presented by the sediment go, they may be appro- 
priately described in the terms which Dr. Bastian applied to the 
matter found by him in a solution of like composition and simi- 
arly treated (see NATURE, July 7, 1870, p. 200). ‘A number 
of little figure-of-eight particles, each of which was »51;,” in 
diameter, were seen in active movement, even in situations where 
they could not have been influenced by currents. The portions 
of the pellicle were made up of large, irregular, and highly 
refractive protein-looking particles imbedded in a transparent 
jelly-like material. The particles were most varied in size and 
shape, being often variously branched and knobbed. There were 
also seen several very delicate, perfectly hyaline vesicles, about 
sptonv in diameter, these being altogether free from solid con- 
tents.” But the movement of the particles which we observed 
was obviously mere Brownian motion ; and many of the particles 
were evidently minute splinters of glass. There was not the 
slightest evidence of life in any of the particles. The water on 
the slide containing these solid matters was evaporated off, and 
they were treated with hot concentrated sulphuric acid, the tem- 
perature of the slide being raised to about 100°C. There was 
no blackening, and the rounded and dendritic bodies remained 
as entirely unaltered as the glass splinters. Indeed, some of the 
larger spheroidal bodies were evidently rounded particles of 
glass which had become detached from the inner walls of the 
tube by the corrosive action of the enclosed liquid at the high 
temperature to which it had been exposed in the digester. 
London, January 16 E. FRANKLAND 


LETTERS LO’ THE EDITOR 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his Correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. | 
The Continuity of the Chalk 
S1r CHARLES LYELL devotes a paragraph of his valuable 
Students’ Elements of Geology,” just published, to the con- 
sideration of what he regards as a ‘‘ popular error as to the 
geological continuity of the Cretaceous period.” I feel the utmost 
diffidence in venturing to controvert any opinion of an authority 
so unrivalled in such questions, but as I believe the first definite 
suggestion of this view occurs in the report of the Lightning Ex- 
pedition of 1868 by my friend and colleague, Dr. Carpenter, 
where it is specially associated with my name, I feel bound to 
defend so far as I can, or at all events to explain, an opinion 
which I then held on perhaps somewhat slender grounds, but 
which further investigation and reflection have since ripened into 
a firm belief. Sir Charles Lyell says (p. 263) that “certain 
points of resemblance which the deep-sea investigations have 
placed in a strong light, have been supposed by some naturalists 
to warrant a conclusion expressed in these words: ‘ We are still 
living in the Cretaceous epoch ;.’ a doctrine which has led to much 
