74 Occurrence of Bacteria f Bacilli) in Living Plants. 



this process is suddenly arrested by the operator at a certain 

 point, requiring great judgment in its exercise, and the tea 

 leaf is dried, so that the process of fermentation ceases. So 

 their presence seems to have been called forth by the abun- 

 dant action of heat. I have not been able to examine the tea 

 leaf under natural conditions, in order to ascertain the 

 presence of these bodies ; but in the leaf of a camellia, which 

 is an ally of the tea plant, I have found some bacteria. I 

 have now little doubt that they are largely distributed in the 

 vegetal world. But the evidence afforded us of their 

 presence in the living cells of vallisneria is most satisfactory 

 in this respect ; that without manipulation their presence 

 can be determined, and, so far, we are certified that their 

 presence is not the result of outside contamination, as might 

 be urged when they are found in the crushed cells of plants. 

 There is, besides, another point of interest, namely, that 

 ensilage, or the process of forming fodder by subjecting 

 green vegetable matter, as grass and trefoil, &c, to imme- 

 diate pressure from the field, in order to form it into cattle 

 food, is dependent on the presence of bacteria forms let 

 loose, and that perhaps owing to the facility of these 

 organisms to be let loose may depend the success or failure 

 which attends this newly imported process of fodder pre- 

 paring. 



In conclusion, I have no intention of discrediting the 

 action of bacteria forms as disease germ -cells if regarded as 

 disease promoters through derived chemical poisons. There 

 may be also a question to be settled. Are the} 7 different in 

 their organic characters, further than or beyond the 

 inducted poison which they appear capable of transmitting ? 

 Their chemical constitution may enable them to present 

 differences in colouring under the use of dyes. 



These considerations lead me to think and suggest that 

 we should not dissociate the study of the animal economy 

 from that of the vegetal. In this last we have placed before 

 us the leading physiological phenomena of the organic 

 world to study in their simplest form, and if duly examined 

 and recorded will, I believe, enable us to carry a thread of 

 continuity from the vegetal forms into the animal organic, 

 always, however, remembering that there has been a 

 differentiation in the production of the higher, as compared 

 with the lower, forms of existence. 



