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ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 7 
himself and other scientific friends. Mr. Preece conducted 
some experiments on the same occasion by placing the meeting 
in connection with the Guild Hall, and in a very short time a 
verse of “ God save the Queen,” as played on a harmonium, was 
distinctly heard. A song, with chords, was afterwards played, 
which was clearly heard by numbers of the audience seated near 
this instrument. But Mr. Bell stated in reply toa question 
that the report that a concert had been heard in America by 
means of the telephone was not correct. We may not unreason- 
ably hope that our able Superintendent of Electric Telegraphs 
will favour this Society with some experiments in connection 
with this remarkable instrument during the course of the 
present session. 
In the month of December Professor Tyndall communicated 
to the Royal Society the results of certain experiments made 
by him in relation to “spontaneous generation,’ which had 
been confirmed by further experiments during a summer resi- 
dence in the Alps. This question has for years been one of 
interest and experiment by men of science; but it appears 
now to be determined that the theory of spontaneous generation 
of infusoria—the lowest forms of which, called bacteria, are the 
known agents of putrefaction—must be abandoned. The 
method by which boiling has been employed to destroy germs in 
the infusion used has been thoroughly tested. The difficulty of 
killing germs in the infusions, and the difficulty of being sure that 
the infusions were opened in air free from germs, appear to have 
led to the belief in spontaneous generation and to the early mis- 
takes in connection with the subject. Ina lecture before the 
Royal Institution, in June last, Professor Tyndall showed that 
oxygen was necessary to the life of these low organisms. Hence 
the idea of sterilizing the infusions by depriving them of air. 
This was done with perfect success. Subjecting an infusion for 
four or five hours to the action of the Sprengel pump, and after- 
wards to one minute’s boiling, with a view to extinguish its — 
already expiring life, germs -were completely destroyed. A 
_ minute thus sepaauen what three hundred minutes in the 
