41 6 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 animalcula of the sea. It would seem probable, 

 however, that for the most part the vital force of the higher and more 

 complex 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. 



Now 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 



