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Mr. F. Crace-Calvert on Protoplasmic Life. [May 11, 



move about in search of their colloid food, and crystalloid minerals are 

 displaced by physical diffusion in search of the plants they are to nourish. 



The excretory products of animals are crystalloid and diffusible, as far 

 as these soluble constituents are concerned, the solid portions rapidly de- 

 composing in contact with air and moisture into crystalloid compounds. 

 Dead vegetable and animal tissue all return into crystalloids by decomposi- 

 tion, to be distributed afresh, either by gaseous or liquid diffusion, through- 

 out the whole of the mineral world. 



Hence Graham's great discovery of the laws of liquid and gaseous 

 diffusion lifts up the curtain which veils the mysteries of animal life, and 

 throws a flood of light on very many physiological phenomena which had 

 until now remained in darkness*. 



II. « On Protoplasmic Life." By F. Crace-Calvert, F.R.S. 

 Received May 8, 187J. 



A year since, the publication of Dr. Tyndall's interesting paper on the 

 abundance of germ-life in the atmosphere, and the difficulty of destroying 

 this life, as well as other papers published by eminent men of science, 

 suggested the inquiry if the germs existing or produced in a liquid in a 

 state of fermentation or of putrefaction could be conveyed to a liquid suscep- 

 tible of entering into these states ; and although at the present time the 

 results of this inquiry are not sufficiently complete for publication, still I 

 have observed some facts arising out of the subject of protoplasmic life 

 which I wish now to lay before the Royal Society. 



Although prepared, by the perusal of the papers of many workers in 

 this field, to experience difficulties in prosecuting the study, I must confess 

 I did not calculate on encountering so many as I met, and especially those 

 arising from the rapid development of germ-life, and of which I have 

 hitherto seen no notice in any papers which have come under my observa- 

 tion. Thus, if the white of a new-laid egg be mixed with water (free from 

 life), and exposed to the atmosphere for only fifteen minutes, in the 

 months of August or September, it will show life in abundance. From 

 this cause I was misled in many of my earlier experiments, not having been 

 sufficiently careful to avoid even momentary exposure of the fluids to the 

 atmosphere. To the want of the knowledge of this fact may be traced the 

 erroneous conclusions arrived at by several gentlemen who had devoted 

 their attention to the subject of spontaneous generation. 



I believe that I have overcome the difficulty of the fluids under exami- 

 nation becoming polluted by impregnation by the protoplasmic life existing 

 in the atmosphere, by adopting the following simple method of working. 



As a pure fluid free from life, and having no chemical reaction, was 

 essential to carrying out the investigation, I directed my attention to the 



* I have bad the valuable assistance of Messrs. M. T. Salter, F. A. Manning, and H. 

 Bassett in the analytical part of my inquiry. 



