444 



SCIENCE. 



the farmer would remain valueless as plant food. The 

 stubble and the dead grasses of our fields, and the fallen 

 leaves, twigs, branches and trunks of trees would remain 

 com para lively unchanged but for the chemical action ex- 

 cited by the same agency. Fish guano, and all unfer- 

 mented organic fertilizers, must undergo bacterian fer- 

 mentation or putrefaction after their application to the 

 soil, or they will remain in a stable form, and their am- 

 monia, locked up in the tissues of which it forms a com- 

 ponent part, will fail to yield its return of profit to the 

 farmer. It is asserted that the great nitre beds of IndU 

 owe their origin to the action of microscopic germs, and 

 the production of nitrate of lime by artificial means pre- 

 sents a similar instance of the results of bacterian action. 

 In this last-named operation animal and vegetable matter 

 combined with lime is laid out in great beds and left for 

 a period of two years, or until fermentation and putrefac- 

 tion, coupled with the action of the air, have produced 

 nitric acid, when nitrate of lime is formed, to be subse- 

 quently converted into nitrate of potash. 



Some of the most beautiful colors used in dyeing are 

 produced by 'subjecting lichens to bacterian fermentation, 

 and the fermentation of stable refuse yields an even heat, 

 which is extensively utilized in the manufacture of white 

 carbonate of lead, as well as in the cultivation of mush- 

 rooms and of various early vegetables. The value of the 

 edible fungi thus produced, alone amounts in Europe, 

 Asia and America to millions of dollars per annum. 

 The utilization of bacteria and similar organisms in the 

 operations of baking and brewing, and the production of 

 wine and vinegar, is familiar to every household. 



While bacterian fermentation or putrefaction is an es- 

 sential part of the process which fits dead organic matter 

 to become food for plants, the former appears to be an 

 incidental source of one of the common practical diffi- 

 culties encountered by the farmer and horticulturist, viz.: 

 the tendency of soils to become sour. Some of the lower 

 forms of fungi are denominated "acid formers," and the 

 mode in which these act will, I think, illustrate the pro- 

 cess by which sourness of soil is brought about. If we 

 dissolve a little sugar in water, add a small quantity of 

 yeast fungus, and subject the solution to a suitable tem- 

 perature, fermentation ensues — the sugar is converted 

 into alcohol and carbonic acid, and in process of time the 

 alcohol is oxidized, becoming acetic acid. As the result 

 of some late observations, I am convinced that a similar 

 change often takes place during the progress of those fer- 

 mentations of which bacteria are the agents, and that 

 these organisms, though in a less distinctive sense, might 

 also be called " acid formers." So far as my observation 

 extends, solutions in which bacterian ferments are in ac- 

 tive progress, invariably become acidulated, and I have 

 also found that soils in which bacteria and micrococci are 

 revealed by microscopic examination — and I find them in 

 all soils of average fertility— give perceptible acid reac- 

 tions when tested by litmus paper. 



That acidity is so often produced in excessive quanti- 

 ties may be due in part to the character of the unmarket- 

 able substances left upon the land in the operations of 

 agriculture, such as the stalks of corn, the stubble of the 

 smaller cereals, decayed grasses, the fallen leaves and 

 twigs of fruit trees, and the roots of field and garden 

 plants in general. In all of these there is a preponder- 

 ance of cellulose, which substance is resolvable succes- 

 sively into starch, dextrine and glucose, and from this 

 last, as from the solution of sugar in the experiment above 

 referred to, is ultimately produced acetic acid. 



The neutralization of the excess of acid in the soil is 

 not the least of the ends subserved by the use of lime 

 and other alkalies in agriculture; but another means 

 which contributes to keep its quantity within wholesome 

 limits is thorough drainage. If the soil of potted plants 

 be not watered with sufficient frequency and copiousness 

 it soon becomes sour, and gardeners have learned by ex- 

 perience to leave at the top of each flower-pot a water 



space of two inches, more or less, depending on the size 

 of the pot. By filling this space with water as often as 

 necessary the soil is kept sufficiently free from organic 

 acids, which are washed out through the aperture below ; 

 and this is precisely similar to what takes place in any 

 well-drained field. 



I have already referred to the opinion that certain 

 species of bacteria produce contagious fevers; but from 

 what has been said above, it will be sufficiently apparent 

 that this is by no means the chief function of this class 

 of organisms. However great their baneful activity at 

 times may be, their services to man and to organized ex- 

 istence in general are infinitely greater. Moreover, the 

 former is but occasional and sporadic, while the latter 

 is practically constant and universal. If the materials 

 once used by the life principle in building up organic 

 bodies could not be used over and over again for the same 

 purpose, life must soon cease through the exhaustion of 

 all that is capable of sustaining it. It is in that which has 

 lived, but lives no longer, that life finds the greater part of 

 its sustenance ; but, as we have already seen, that vege- 

 table life upon which all animal life ultimately depends 

 can not use this sustenance in the form in which life left 

 it. Before organic matter is available as plant food, it 

 must be reduced almost to its primitive elements; and, 

 as has been pointed out, its reduction is mainly effected 

 through those processes of fermentation and putrefaction, 

 in which bacteria appear to be the most active and import- 

 ant agents. Thus we find among those simple forms of 

 life, which are supposed to have been the first to make 

 their appearance on our planet, and to which, if we ac- 

 cept the theory of evolution, even the most complex of 

 existing organisms owe their origin — an agent which, 

 from the very inception of life upon the earth, has con- 

 tinuously performed a function without which the succes- 

 sive generations of plants and animals could not have 

 existed ; and stupendous as is its work, it is an agent so 

 minute that twenty million individuals of its class might 

 be inclosed within a globe small enough to pass through 

 the eye of a cambric needle. 



ANCIENT JAPANESE BRONZE BELLS.* 

 By Prof. Edward S. Morse. 



Mr. Morse described the so-called Japanese Bronze 

 Bells which are dug up in Japan. These bells had been 

 described and figured by Prof. Monroe in the Proceed- 

 ings of the New York Academy of Sciences. Mr. Kanda, 

 an eminent Japanese archaeologist, had questioned their 

 being bells from their peculiar structure. 



Mr. Morse had seen a number of bells of different 

 kinds, some of considerable antiquity, but none of them 

 approached these so-called bronze bells. Mr. Kanda had 

 suggested that they were the ornaments which were 

 formerly hung from the corners of pagoda roofs, but the 

 fact that none of them showed signs of wear at the point 

 of support, rendered this supposition untenable. Mr. 

 John Robinson, of Salem, the author of a work on Ferns, 

 had given the first suggestion as to the possible use of 

 these objects. He has asked why they may not have 

 been covers to incense burners. Curiously enongh, old 

 incense burners are dug up which have the same oval 

 shape that a section of the bell shows. The bell has 

 openings at the base and also at the sides and top, so that 

 the smoke of burning incense might escape. It is quite 

 evident that these objects are neither bells nor pagoda 

 ornaments, and this suggestion of Mr. Robinson's may 

 possibly lead to some clue regarding their origin. 



ELECTRIC MOTIVE Power for Omnibuses.— The Faure ac- 

 cumulators have been tried again by the Paris omnibus 

 company on a tramway with a carriage arranged for the 

 purpose. The experiment is said to have been highly suc- 

 cessful. 



*Rcad before the A. A. A. S., Cincinnati, 1881. 



