416 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
Vital force may be converted into electricity, as we see in the Gymnotus 
or electrical eel, and with light, as we see in the glow-worm, the firefly, 
the phosphorescent animaleula of the sea. It would seem probable, 
however, that for the most part the vital force of the higher and more 
eomplex organisms is simply transferred by their death to lower organisms, 
of which the germs are always ready at ordinary temperatures to germinate 
in the tissues of the higher organisms. 
There seems to be a constant process of transference of vital force from 
lower organisms to higher ones, and from these to the lower ones again. 
Some experiments I have recently been making would seem to show that all 
but the lowest forms of vegetal life are fed by the Bacteria. I have recently 
been examining a number of different kinds of soil, taken from various 
heights above the sea-level, some from the tops of the hills near Sydenham, 
and some from marshy soil, some from ordinary garden mould, some from 
gravel deposits, and some from clay dug out at a depth of from two feet to 
three feet nine inches below the surface. I find them all swarming with 
Bacteria to such an extent that when shaken up with water in a tube, and 
allowed to rest for a few days, a layer of Bacteria is formed visible to the 
naked eye, while the supernatant water never becomes clear, but is con- 
stantly opalescent from the presence of these minute organisms. 
w when we find Bacteria present in such abundance, and that too in 
soils which have never been exposed to light since the day they were de- 
posited, it is only natural to enquire for what object they exist, or what end 
they serve. Are they merely the result of the death and decomposition of 
higher organisms ? 
This can hardly be the case, because if so they would not be found in 
such abundance, or at such depths below the surface. Several feet below 
the surface of soil in which only a few weeds or a little grass is growing we 
find them in myriads. Now we know that these minute beings can but live 
a few hours, and that when dead they very speedily disappear. A very simple 
experiment will prove this. Boil a little garden mould for a few minutes for 
two or three days running, so as to destroy all Bacteria and their germs, 
and then let it stand a day or two in hot weather, and it will soon begin to 
smell offensively. 
May not these Bacteria be intended for the nourishment of higher 
organisms, animal and vegetable, but chiefly the latter; and may not their 
abundance explain the fact that the rootlets of plants descend to such 
depths in search of nourishment? It seems to me highly probable that the 
rootlets of the higher plants do not receive nourishment directly from the 
inorganic constituents of the soil, but do so only by means of these Bacteria, 
which themselves act as feeders and intermediaries between the inorganic 
