46 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinhurgli. [dec. 5, 
(if I may use tliat expression) tubercle-bacilli, and after being kept 
at a temperature of 38° C. for twenty-five days, no growths made 
their appearance in any of the tubes. 
A similar number of tubes containing sterilised sweet milk were 
inoculated from the “ electrified ” Bacterium lactis, with no results 
after twenty-five days’ incubation. Seven tubes containing the 
purest ethyl alcohol and ordinary filtered tap-water* (the mixture 
contained 6 per cent. ' of alcohol) were inoculated with the 
‘‘ electrified ” Bacterium aceti, with negative results. 
So we have here positive evidence that these micro-organisms were 
destroyed by the electric current. 
VII. Is Bacterium aceti the Eeal Cause op the Acetic 
Feumentation ^ 
Although Pasteur maintained that Bacterium aceti was the cause 
of the acetic fermentation ; and Cohn {Biol. d. Pflanzen, vol. ii. 
p. 173) observed the micro-organism largely’ in sour beers; yet, 
not until the commencement of 1886, could any one say with 
certainty that this micro-organism was the real cause of the acetic 
fermentation. In that year, Mr Adrian J. Brown, F.C.S. {Journal 
Chemical Society 1886, p. 172), prepared pure cultivations 
of Bacterium aceti, and found that the well-known reaction — 
C2H5OH -f O2 = H2O -h CH3.COOH , 
is produced by the life-history of Bacterium aceti (Mycoderma 
aceti). 
I can entirely endorse the correctness of Mr Brown’s observations, 
for after obtaining pure cultivations of the micro-organism by a com- 
bination of the fractional and dilution methods (used by Brown), 
it was found that these cultivations, when used to inoculate steri- 
lised ethyl alcohol (6 per cent.) gave acetic acid in abundance. 
VIII. Anal and Hypodermic Injections of Aqueous Solutions 
OP Salicylic Acid in Cases of Cholera. 
It will be remembered that early in the present year (1887) the 
* Tap-water was used in preference to distilled water, on account of the 
mineral matter it contains — the micro-organisms requiring small quantities 
of mineral matter. 
