■ 190 
DR. L. WALDSTBIN. 
A Contribution to the Biology of Bacteria. By Dr. L. 
Waldstetn, of the Pathological Institute, Heidelberg.^ 
The experiments here recorded were not undertaken to meet 
Dr. Bastian on his favourite field of research, nor does this 
communication partake of the polemical nature of so many of 
the recent publications on the same subject. The wide import- 
ance, quite irrespective of abiogenesis, which attaches itself 
to Dr. Bastian’s work,^ is here recognised in so far as the method 
employed by him is concerned. 
Bacteria have been assigned a prominent position in pathology, 
more especially since the theories of Pettenkofer and of Lister 
have introduced them as causally connected with infection. They 
are to-day certainly made responsible for more than can be well 
proven with our present knowledge of the conditions of their 
existence. This can be gathered from the perusal of but a very 
small portion of the voluminous literature, which has grouped 
itself about the many theories and hypotheses as to their patho- 
genic properties, based on experiments which, in many instances, 
have given quite as frequently negative as positive results. 
The study of the conditions under which Bacteria multiply, 
as well as of those which prove to be unfavorable to their develop- 
ment, is, clearly in view of these circumstances, of the highest 
interest, and all researches in this direction ought to be examined 
with great care, in an objective spirit. Dr. Bastian, in the 
course of his researches, has not strictly confined himself to these 
questions alone. He has also drawn conclusions which, as he 
himself remarks, tend towards a complete revolution in the 
current opinions held with respect to the role taken in pathology 
by micro-organisms. 
Dr. Bastian — citing the experiments of Gerhardt, which go to 
prove that alcohol mixed with a little potash becomes converted 
into vinegar and a brown resinous substance, whereas in its 
natural state it can be exposed to the air indefinitely without 
becoming acid — proposes to show that potash added to sterilised 
and well guarded urine produces conditions favorable to the 
spontaneous generation of micro-organisms. He adds the alkali 
in a certain proportion, determined in each case by the acidity of 
the urine. 
* The author desires to refer the reader to his more extended memoir 
on the same subject in Virchow’s ‘ Archiv,* vol. 77, 1879. 
* “ On the Conditions favouring Fermentation, and the appearance of 
Bacilli, Micrococci, and Torulac in previously Boiled Fluids,” by H. Charl- 
ton Bastian. ‘Journal of the Linnean Society (Zoology),’ Oct. 24, 1877. 
London. 
