242 Notes and Memoranda. 



the chemical phenomena and the life of the plants were clearly correlative. 

 When the experiments were performed in close vessels containing besides the 

 liquid a known quantity of air, it was ascertained that the vinegar-plant took 

 oxygen from the air, and therewith converted the alcohol into acetic acid ; and 

 that the mycoderm of wine took oxygen from the air, and converted the alcohol 

 into water and carbonic acid. It was likewise ascertained that if the alcohol was 

 removed, and the vinegar-plant grown in an acetic liquid, the acid was trans- 

 formed into water and carbonic acid. With the mycoderm of wine the effect was 

 the same, especially if there was a little alcohol in the liquid. From these facts 

 M. Pasteur concludes that the wine and vinegar plants behave in the same 

 manner, and that there are circumstances in which their action is exalted, that is 

 to say, that the plant, instead of taking from the air two, or four, molecules of 

 oxygen to combine with one molecule of alcohol, and thus produce aldehyd or 

 acetic acid, takes eight, or twelve, molecules of oxygen, and by their aid com- 

 pletely transforms the alcohol and the acetic acid into water and carbonic acid. 

 The vinegar-plant does not produce acetification when it is submerged. This 

 was ascertained by noting the degree of acidity of a liquid in which a growing plant 

 floated. The plant was made to sink by glass rods, and the acetification was 

 arrested. Following his investigations, M. Pasteur arrives at the conviction that 

 the well-known process of manufacturing vinegar by allowing a suitable liquid to 

 trickle over wood twigs or shavings, is not, as was supposed, a purely chemical 

 process, but dependent upon the formation of a pellicle of the vinegar-plant. 

 The important paper from which we have condensed these observations concludes 

 in these words : — " If the mycoderms possessed solely the property of acting as 

 agents for the combustion of alcohol and acetic acid, their performance would be 

 well worth attention ; but I recognize in their functions a generality of action 

 which opens a field for new researches in physiology and organic chemistry. In 

 fact, the mycoderms are able to bring about the combustion of a great number of 

 organic substances, such as sugars, organic acids, various alcohols, and albuminoid 

 matters, giving rise in some cases to intermediate compounds, of which I have 

 recognized a few. I may add that the property which we are discussing exists in 

 various degrees among the mueidines, and I believe also among the smallest of 

 the infusoria. I have observed that by the development of a mueidine, it is 

 possible to transform into carbonic acid and water considerable quantities of 

 sugar, so that scarcely any of that substance shall be left in a solution. If 

 microscopic beings disappeared from our globe, its surface woidd be en- 

 cumbered with dead organic matter and carcases of all kinds, animal and 

 vegetable. It is they who chiefly give to oxygen its combustion-producing 

 qualities. Without them life would be impossible, for the work of death would 

 be incomplete. Afier death life reappears under another form, and with new 

 properties. The germs, everywhere disseminated, of microscopic beings com- 

 mence their evolutions, and by their aid oxygen is combined in enormous masses 

 with the organic substances, and their combustion gradually rendered complete. 

 If I may be permitted to characterize briefly another point of view to which we 

 have been conducted, I would say that we obscure the existence of organized cel- 

 lules endowed with a property of completely burning organic masses with consider- 

 able evolution of heat, or of carrying their oxidization to a variable extent. This 

 is a faithful image of the respiration and combustion which take place in the pul- 

 monary cells through the circulation of the blood, whose globules seek oxygen 

 from the air, in order that they may burn .in various degrees the different 

 principles of the human economy." 



Roman Ring-keys. — Some of the Roman keys attached to rings so as to be 

 worn on the finger, and which are well known to antiquaries, were recently 

 found at Water Newton in digging for gravel, close to the road from Stamford to 

 Peterborough. Associated with them were cinerary urns and lachrymatories. 

 The rings were of brass and bronze, and of the size used by the Roman ladies, 

 who were accustomed to carry their casket keys in this manner. 



New Theory of Comets. — Mr. Benjamin Marsh has published some inte- 

 resting facts and opinions concerning these curious bodies in the American Journal 

 of Science and Arts. He attributes the peculiar character of comctary matter 



