TffB 



I 



468 



THE BEGINNINGS OF IIFE, 



their appearance in the solution^ and which persisted 

 throughout, were gelatinous and made up 



of aggre- 



gations of the finest granules. These^ however, became 

 almost invisible when mounted in glycerine and car- 

 bolic acid. 



Experiment z. A solution containing eight grains of 

 amnionic tartrate, and three grains of sodic phosphate, 

 in one ounce of New River water (from the tap). 



On dissolving the crystals in this water, a small 

 amount of fine white precipitate was produced. After 

 the tube was taken from the digester a fine white de- 

 posit soon subsided. No cloud-like flocculi appeared, 

 and no further change was discovered in the solution. 

 The tube was opened on the sixty-sixth day, after the 



The fluid had a neutral reaction, and on microscopical 

 examination no living things could be found, either in 

 it or amongst the amorphous granules of the sediment ^ 



In addition to the experiments now recorded, I have 

 performed twenty others in which the tubes and solu- 



examined microscopically. The plant was completely disorganised : not a 

 single entire spore cotdd he found; they were all broken up into small 

 and more or less irregular particles, and the filaments were more or less 

 empty — containing no definite contents, and being only represented by 

 torn tubular fragments of various sizes. 



^ New River water was used in this case with the view of seeing how 



r 



the results would be modified. It probably contained too much lime- 

 salts and other saline constituents. Germs, of course, may have been 



^ 



present in abundance, and yet no living things were subsequently to be 

 found. 



I 



and turnip 



,ii temperature 

 d by this an 



'5 



-J^ester, the pri 

 jiioDSjforinstanc 



;iito the abund, 

 toed organic 



vacuum had been ascertained to be still well preserved. ^^) occupied a 



** 



5f supernatant b 



I'' toer tubes had I 



cc^aiji 



of their 

 '"'» t^be, whose mi 

 ^ ^-l into which 



'""^'^^■as fitted. 



H\ 



C^i^onv h 



>% sealed , 

 <^ i^on tube 



^^^' ^th ' *" 





^. '• 'f'e V 



*1 



•-«ii 



*** \ 



