IxXXVi PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



minutes to four hours, also became the seat of infusorial life 

 (gradually more rare the longer the boiling was continued). 



4. No infusoria of any kind appeared if the boiling was prolonged 

 beyond a period oifive hours. 



5. Infusoria having the faculty of locomotion lost this when 

 exposed in water to a temperature of from 120° to 134° Fahr, 



Thus it would appear that although a heat considerably below 

 that of boiling water will destroy the life of individual infusoria, yet 

 the germs of Vibrios, Bacteriums, and Monads (or, as spontaneous - 

 gencrationists might say, the faculty possessed by the atoms of 

 organic substances of being converted into living Vibrios) will resist 

 during a longer or shorter period the action of boiling water, but 

 that a limit can be reached, beyond which their destruction is 

 inevitable and no Vibrios are generated or created. 



SotJTnRRN HEMISrirEHE. 



I have on former occasions alluded to the impulse given to the 

 study of Natural Science in Australia by the indefatigable exertions 

 of the distinguished Government Botanist of Melbourne, Dr. Ferdi- 

 nand Mueller, whose zeal continues undiminished. Obliged by the 

 state of his health to give himself some temporary rest, he took the 

 opportunity of paying a visit to King George's Sound to make him- 

 self personallj^ acquainted with the only section of the Australian 

 flora which he had not observed in the living wild state, and, during 

 his short stay there, collected very largely. Among numerous minor 

 labours he has carried his ' Fragmcnta Phytograi)hia) Australia ' far 

 into the sixth volume, a valuable repertory of descriptions and ob- 

 servations, the practical usefulness of which, hoAvevcr, is nuich di- 

 minished by the total want of order and method. His Essay on 

 Australian Vegetation, indigenous or introduced, on the occasion of 

 the Intercolonial Exhibition at Melbourne in 1866-67, is fuU of useful 

 information on a subject which no one is better acquainted with than 

 himself; and it is to be hoped that he may now devote himself to the 

 preparation of the promised monograph of that genus Eiicalyj)tus 

 which forms so essential a part of the useful as well as the cha- 

 racteristic vegetation of Australia. Several of his friends, whom he 

 has incited to the pursuit of Botany, have published papers on 

 various subjects, especially Mr. Woolls, of Parramatta, who has col- 

 lected his various Essays into a volume entitled ' Contributions to 

 the Flora of Australia.' 



