526 General Notes. [July, 
achia vulgaris). Indeed, in the rivulet mentioned my countryman 
has even himself caught or seen caught the common Kulmule ( Mer- 
lucctus vulgaris) and Pighaien ( Acanthias vulgaris) which are not 
ound elsewhere on the coast. The Torsk is said of late years to go 
quite up to the basin at Odense; in the rivulet, however it ascends 
scarcely beyond Korup.— Translated b r. Bean, and received 
Jrom Prof Baird, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 
Rev. Mr. DALLINGER ON THE THEORY OF SPONTANEOUS GENER- 
ATION.—In a valuable paper in the Journal of the Royal Micro- 
scopical Society for February, the author records the results of a 
series of experiments made to determine the thermal death point 
of known monad germs, when the heat is endured in a fluid. He 
made it plain, that a temperature of 140° to 142° Fahr. is abso- 
lutely destructive of the adult monad. The spores of six monads 
in the case of heat endured in a fluid were killed at the following 
temperatures: the first were destroyed at from 267° to 268° 
hr; a second form had its spores devitalized at 212° Fahr. 
the normal boiling point of water ; but in a dry heat, it could en- 
re 250° Fahr; a third died at 250° Fahr. in dry and 232° 
Fahr. in fluid heat; the spores of a fourth form (a cerco-monad), 
were destroyed at 238° Fahr. in fluid heat, surviving at 260° 
Fahr. dry heat. There were two species that could just survive 
300° Fahr. in the dry heat, but perished in fluid at 268° Fahr. and 
252° Fahr., respectively. The smallest spores survived the heat 
best. 
Mr. Dallinger thus concludes: “ The bearing of these results 
on the deeper questions of biology is plain; at least they show on 
the most superficial glance, the error of assuming the abiogenetic 
origin of septic organisms that may have arisen in closed vessels, 
because they were heated to a sufficient temperature to destroy the 
adult, or to any temperature less than that zown to be destructive 
of the germ. They show equally the need of enlarged and earn- 
est work in this somewhat difficult but most fruitful field of labor. 
represented my own view in approaching the question. But the 
facts were eloquent ; besides which a closer study of the great 
