268 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [june 6, 
sterilised water, and kept at a temperature which varied between 50° 
and 65° F. Ten days afterwards the muscles had undergone no 
marked change ; they were certainly not putrefying, and yet 
living bacilli were sufficiently abundant in and around the fibres 
composing them. The importance of the bacilli so often found in 
fish being non-put ref active and being apparently non-morbific, i.e., 
not being associated with any special disease, will be readily 
understood. Were they putrefactive, the preservation of fish as food 
would be extremely difficult, and the danger of suffering from the 
presence of noxious bye-products in the flesh of fish still greater 
than it is at present. There is scarcely any escape from the 
conclusion that the bacilli, as long as they survive after the death 
of their host, must tend to the formation of bye-products of some 
kind. Whether these bye-products have any influence in producing 
the characteristic flavour of somewhat high fish it is impossible to 
say, but it is extremely probable. In game in a high condition I 
have always found bacteria, but even in grouse which had been 
kept for three months during winter, very few putrefactive bacteria 
were found in the large pectoral muscles. 
Further observations will probably show there is a relation 
between the facility with which bacteria penetrate into and 
survive in the muscles, and what might be called their innate 
vitality. In fish, in which relatively the percentage of water in 
the muscles is low, and the fatty constituents high, the bacteria 
may be less able to flourish than in fish in which the opposite 
conditions obtain. Again, there seems to be a relation between 
the number of bacteria present in any given fish and the time 
at which putrefaction takes place. This, as observed above, is 
apparently not necessarily a relation of cause and effect. The 
presence of numerous bacteria seems to be an indication of dimin- 
ished vitality, an indication that the muscles will fall a ready 
prey to putrefactive bacteria as soon as they make their appear- 
ance. 
Olivier and Richet conclude their second paper as follows : — 
“ En resume, nous croyons pouvoir conclure qu’il y a toujours ou 
presque toujours des microbes dans les liquides lymphatiques des 
poissons, et per consequent dans l’intimate de leurs tissus.” 
This conclusion was apparently arrived at chiefly because, by 
