BACTEEIA AND THEIR ALLIES ITf 



Bacteria seemed to be developing in, and on the surface of, the 

 primordial utricle, and also within, and on the surface of, the nuclei 

 of the cells. 



I have made only one experiment of this kind with an Apple ; and, 

 in this case, a rather small but thoroughly sound specimen was placed 

 in a screw-top bottle, standing on a small earthenware pot as before, 

 so as to remove it from contact with some pure formalin which was 

 placed at the bottom of the bottle. The top was tightly screwed 

 on, and the bottle was then placed in a cupboard, where it remained 

 for eight weeks, the temperature of the cupboard varying during 

 this time between 70° and 56° F. The apple was thus left, as the 

 turnip had been, in an atmosphere saturated with formalin vapour.' 



On examination, the surface of the apple was found to be hard- 

 ened, and, on section, irregular patches of brownish discolouration 

 were seen. Otherwise nothing abnormal was observed. 



Microscopical examination of an unstained section showed, in a 

 few of the cells, a small Fungus mycelium. Specimens of the same 

 kind were found in cells in different parts of the section, though in 

 the majority of them nothing of the kind was met with. When 

 present the growth seemed to start from the cell-wall close to the 

 nucleus, if not from the nucleus itself. No Bacilli were seen ; but 

 in some cells there were found what, judging from their uniform 

 size and mode of arrangement, appeared to be a number of 

 Micrococci on the primordial utricle. As usual, they scarcely 

 stained at all with carbo-fuchsine. 



I have now to record an interesting case of spontaneous change 

 in some apples, which occurred under the following circumstances. 

 Early in the winter of 1902 I received from a friend in America a 

 case of very choice Canadian apples. The case had a separate 

 cardboard partition for every apple, and they were all in excellent 

 condition. Some of them were kept to a date as late as the second 

 week in January of the following year. From about the middle of 

 December I noticed that many of these apples, when cut through 

 the centre, showed a brown discolouration beginning at a number 

 of separate points around the periphery of the core, as may be seen 

 in Fig. 9, A and B (J nat. size). An early stage of the change is 



' I have not had many successes with this method, and do not recommend it, 

 especially as the soaking for a time in ten per cent, formalin has proved to be 

 perfectly sufficient to guard against external contamination. It is difficult to tell 

 how far the formalin vapour penetrates into the substance of fruits or vegetables 

 left in an atmosphere saturated with it for many weeks. 



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