C. H. F. Peters — Discovery of c 



sion was prepared by digesting thin slices in distiilei 

 temperature of 120" F. " The infusion was divided between four 

 large test-tubes, in one of which it was left unboiled, in another 

 boiled for five minutes, in the two remaining ones boiled, and 

 after cooling infected with one drop of beef-infusion containing 

 Bacteria. In twenty-four hours the unboiled tube and the two 

 infected ones were cloudy, the unboiled tube being the most 

 turbid of the three. The infusion here was peculiarly limpid 

 after digestion ; for turnip it was quite exceptional, and no 

 amount of searching with the microscope " ^ • ■ 



ill germs were there 

 fie day 



which, suitably nourished, passe( 

 swarms without number. Five days have not sufficed to produce 

 an effect approximately equal to this in the boiled tube, which 

 w;is uninfected but exposed to the common laboratory air. 



There cannot, moreover, be a doubt that the germs in the air 

 differ widely among themselves as regai'ds ^^reparec^/i^ss for devel- 

 opment. 8ome are fresh, others old ; some are dry, others moist. 

 Infected by such uenns the same infusion would require different 

 lengths of time to develop Bacteiial life. This remark applies to 

 and explains the different degrees of rapidity with which epidemic 

 disease acts ui)ou different people. In some the hatching-period, 

 if it may be called such, is long, in some short, the differences 

 depending upon the different degrees of preparedness of the 

 contagium. 



The author refers with particular satisfaction to the untiring 

 patience, the admirable mechanical skill, the veracity in thought, 

 word, and deed, displayed throughout this first section of a large 

 and complicated inquirv by his assistant, Mr. John Cottrell, who 

 was zealously aided by his junior colleague, Mr. Frank Yalter. 



Note. Jan. 31.— The notion that the author limited himself 

 to temperatures of 60° and 70° Fahr. is an entire misconception. 

 But more of this anon. 



Art. Xl..~I)iscovery of a new Planet- by C. H. F. Pete: 

 (i^rom a letter to one of the Editors, dated Litchfield Obser^ 

 tory of Hamilton College, Clinton, X. Y., Feb. 2(5, 1876.) 



.A new planet, eleventh magnitude, was first seen here 

 night of the 20th bwi- <i.,fl "..fVo,- cc,T...rnl i\-^v^ 



md, ""after several days of bad weathe 



10 17 



On the hrst night onlv an approxin 

 for the second night the compaVison , 

 »>y nieans of the meridian circle. 



Am. Jour. Sci.-Thibd Sbbibs, Vol. XI, N^ 



