Notes on Arctic Air. 37 
ging, it occurred to me that if active Bacteria existed in the air, 
they should be found in recognisable numbers on the surface of 
the meat exposed for six months to the weather. A direct 
microscopic examination of scraps from the surface of the meat 
without taking them between decks could not be satisfactorily 
made, but so far as it went, gave negative results. So I resolved 
to seal up a piece of meat and see what would happen to it. 
Accordingly, on the 15th January I cut, with a clean saw, a wedge 
from the surface, including a piece of platysma, darkened by ex- 
posure to the air, and put it intoa burnt out glass tube, half an 
inch in diameter and five inches long—the largest I had—then 
with a spirit lamp and blow pipe, pulled out the open end of the 
tube, and sealed it hermetically. The whole operation was per- 
formed in a snow house, in a temperature ten below zero. The 
meat had been freely exposed to the air since 28th August. In 
the interval the temperature had been but once above 32° (F), 
and that was during the Fcéhn of 3rd to 5th December, when it 
suddenly rose some sixty degrees, and reached four above the 
freezing point. The lowest temperature the meat had been ex- 
posed to was forty-six below zero (F.) On bringing the sealed 
tube into my cabin, the meat, for the first time, thawed, and 
became soft enough to stick to the sides of the glass. It was kept 
till the return of the expedition in a temperature averaging 49° 
and subsequently remained in the Laboratory of this Society to 
all appearance completely unchanged. On the anniversary of 
the day on which it was sealed up it was shown in this Lecture 
Theatre still in perfect condition, although the tube had been 
cracked in exhibiting it to some friends a few days before. The 
crack was sealed up eight hours after it was made, but the sequel 
proved that the meat was neither dried up or in any way in- 
capable of putrefaction : for before the end of the month it had 
become green and putrid. In spite then of the ascertained 
presence of some organisms in Arctic air this experiment proves, 
I think, conclusively that active putrefactive infection is absent 
from the air to which the meat was exposed, and in which it 
was sealed up. 
The literature relating to the second part of our enquiry is not 
extensive. The only chemical examinations of polar air hitherto 
made, have been in sealed samples, necessarily of small amount, 
