ON BACTERIOLOGY IN ITS RELATIONS TO CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 463 



2. The production of ptomaines and poisonous albuminoids. 



3. The phenomena of natural and artificial immunity, including the 

 much-vexed questions of phagocytosis and the bactericidal properties of 

 blood-serum and animal fluids. 



In all these branches of bacteriology there is not only much that is of 

 interest to chemists, but there is urgent need in the interests of science 

 that these subjects should receive the attention of chemists, for almost in 

 every direction in which bacteriology is advancing it is abutting on 

 problems which will require the most profound knowledge of chemistry 

 for their elucidation. In many respects, moreover, chemists are at a 

 great advantage in the investigation of bacteriological problems, inasmuch 

 as their thorough experimental training and manipulative skill afford the 

 very best preparation for the study of this subject, in which the inductive 

 method and a due appreciation of all the complicating factors which 

 surround an experimental inquiry are in continual requisition. It must 

 not, however, be supposed that a chemist can apply any bacteriological 

 method with the same readiness that he can carry out some new chemical 

 preparation from a published description. In the management of living 

 loacteria there are a number of points which have to be carefully borne in 

 mind which do not enter into one's consideration in dealing with inanimate 

 matter. But this step from the inanimate to the animate is not more 

 difficult for the chemist than for the vegetable or animal morphologist ; 

 indeed, it is perhaps not as difficult, for, whilst the morphologist is oc- 

 cupied only with statical considerations, in modern Chemistry our attention 

 is turned more and more to dynamical problems. 



In view of the vast fields of fruitful research which lie in this province 

 of Biological Chemistry, it appears to me that the curriculum of chemical 

 training should be more and more framed with a view to their successful 

 exploitation. It is desirable that chemical students should take zoology, 

 botany, and physiology as subsidiary subjects more frequently than they 

 do at present in order that the barrier which is often felt to exist between 

 Chemistry and Biology may be broken down and abolished. 



The Circulation of Underground Waters. — Nineteenth Report of 

 the Committee, consisting of Professor E. Hull {Chairman), 

 Eev. Dr. H. W. Crosskey, Sir D. Galton, J. Glaisher, Percy 

 Kendall, Professor G. A. Lebour, E. B. Marten, G. H. Morton, 

 W. Pengelly, Professor J. Prestwich, I. Koberts, Thos. S. 

 Stooke, G. J. Symons, W. Topley, C. Tylden-Wright, E. 

 Wethered, W. Whitaker, and C. E. De Eance {Secretary). 

 (Draivn up by C. E. De Range.) 



The inception of this committee was due to Professor Hull, who was 

 appointed Chairman at Belfast in 1874, with your reporter as Secretary, 

 for the purpose of investigating the circulation of underground waters in 

 the permeable formations of England and Wales, and the quantity and 

 character of the waters supplied to various towns and districts from these 

 formations. It was felt last year that the labours of the Committee were 

 nearly completed, and that they could not terminate their labours at a 



