DEVELOPMENT OE BACTERIA IN VARIOUS PLANTS. 
167 
logical Eesearches on Bacteria.” My observations appeared to 
me to give a different explanation of the results obtained by M. 
Davaine ; I therefore wished to verify and establish my opinion 
by examining other instances of frozen plants. During the frosts 
which occurred at Montpellier from the 25th to the 30th of 
January last, I obtained a number of frozen plants, and exa- 
mined them from ten to twelve days after the thaw. 
The observations conducted by me were made on the fol- 
lowing plants: — Opuntia vulgaris, Galla jEthiopica, Agave 
Americana, Datura suaveolens, Solanum aviculare, Entellea 
arhorescens, Gyperus papyrus, Nerium oleander, Melanthus 
major, Echinocaetus rucarinus. They lead me to the follow- 
ing coDclusions: — 
1. Notwithstanding that the contrary is believed, bacteria 
can become developed in an acid medium, which can remain 
acid or become alkaline, as well as in a medium absolutely 
neutral or remaining neutral. On some future occasion I shall 
adduce new proofs in support of this proposition. 
2. The normal microzymas of plants, like those of animals, 
may evolve bacteria ; and since in a single plant many forms, 
if not many species, of these bacteria may appear, I think we 
should in this perceive the demonstration that many sorts of 
microzymse may exist in one plant. 
3. In those experiments in which the plants are inoculated 
with bacteria, it is probable that these bacteria do not multiply ; 
they only provoke a change of medium, which becomes favour- 
able to the evolution of the normal microzymas of the animal 
into bacteria, and to the disturbances which thence result. 
4. In the studies made on the spontaneous generation of low 
organisms, or of a simple cell, note has not been taken of the 
molecular granulations. I have shown these hitherto to be 
active everywhere — in chalk, in fermentations, in plants, and 
in animals. 
5. Finally, these new observations confirm and extend, on 
one hand, the researches published by M. Estor and myself ; 
and, on the other, those published by M. Mouchy, from experi- 
ments made in my laboratory. 
In a forthcoming work, I will report the experiments relative 
to the chemical function of the bacteria developed in frozen 
plants. — Gompjtes Rendus, February 22, 1869. 
