202 



Messrs. A. Dowries and T. P. Blunt on [Dec. 19, 



shown, in our previous paper, that the liquid in tubes which under 

 insolation had remained barren was, nevertheless, not impaired as a 

 nidus for development, for, on removing them to a dark place and 

 inoculating with a drop of ordinary water, they soon teemed with 

 vigorous bacterial life ; the same experiment showing that the survival 

 of the spores of mycelial fungi, as compared with Bacteria, was not 

 due to any change in the cultivation- fluid rendering it noxious to the 

 latter, but not to the former. At the same time, though this was not 

 probable, there might have been a temporary and transient action 

 dependent on some constituent of the cultivation-fluid. We de- 

 termined, therefore, to render the conditions as simple as possible. 



It is well known that all ordinary water, even distilled, teems with 

 the " germs " — actual or potential — of various forms of life. We 

 wished to ascertain whether or no sunlight would impair the vitality 

 of, or destroy, "germs" existing in ordinary distilled water. 



Fig. 1. Tig. 2 (reduced). 



We made a number of glass bulbs, of the shape shown in fig. 1, 

 into each was introduced a measured quantity of a very concentrated 



