xl 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



No. XXXII. Simple Turnip Infusion remained in the 

 warm-bath for twenty-eight days without undergoing any 

 appreciable change ^. On breaking the neck of the flask, the 

 fluid was found to be quite odourless. With its neck quite open 

 the flask was replaced in the water-bath. During the first 

 forty-eight hours it underwent no apparent change, thouo-h at 

 the end of seventy-two hours a slight general turbidity was 

 noticeable, and an examination of a drop of the fluid (still 

 odourless) showed a number of minute but very active 

 Bacteria ^, 



Fluid in a Bent-neck Flask, having Eight acute Flexu 



No. XXXIIL Simple Turnip Infusion showed 



no 



change after immersion for eight days in the warm bath. 

 After eleven days, the fluid being still clear, the tube was 

 broken just beyond the second bending from the bulb, and 

 then the flask was re-immersed in the bath. After three days' 

 exposure, the fluid being still clear, it was boiled in the flask 

 for one minute, when it was noticed that the steam was quite 

 odourless. The flask was then replaced in the water-bath, 

 where it remained for twenty-two days (still with the neck 

 open and broken just beyond its second bending) without 

 showing any change ^ It was then submitted to examina- 



they certainly were in their naked-eye characters, to those met with in 

 No. XXXV. 



^ Experiment No. 8, recorded in 'Nature/ 1870, No. 36, p. 194, may 

 be compared with this and No. XXXIII. 



2 This experiment should be compared with Nos. XXIII. and 

 XXXIII. It seems to show that if some fermentable fluids can be kept 

 for a time under conditions in which they will not ferment, the consti- 

 tution of the fluid, instead of remaining the same, undergoes a slow 

 alteration by which it is rendered absolutely less fermentable, even 

 when exposed to the most favouring influences. 



^ After this experiment had been completed, a fresh-filtered infusion 

 of turnip was placed in the same flask (having the neck open just 

 beyond its second bending), and after having been boiled for a few 

 minutes it was immersed in the same water-bath. This fluid became 



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