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better to carry the whole to Mr. Dancer, and to leave him to do 
the rest, as my knowledge of microscopic forms is so trifling com- 
pared to his. It may, however, interest the Society to hear of a 
few of these previous attempts, the latest made till recently. I 
shall, therefore, read from a report to be found in the appendix to 
that on the cattle plague. 
Mr. Crookes also brought me some cotton through which air 
from an infected place had passed. It was examined at the same 
time. Taking cotton in the mass, nothing decided was seen ; but 
when it was washed some of the separate films were coated over 
with small, nearly round bodies, presenting no structure, or at 
least only feeble traces of it, and perhaps to be called cells. I 
had not sent gun-cotton, as I intended, to Mr. Crookes, fearing 
the rules of the post ; otherwise there would have been more cer- 
tainty that the bodies spoken of did not exist previously on the 
cotton. However, Mr. Dancer, who has examined cotton 
with the microscope oftener than most persons, even of those 
experienced in the subject, had never observed a similar appear- 
ance. 
The liquid had also a number of similar bodies floating in it. 
It was then that Mr. Crookes sent a liquid which he had con- 
densed from the air of an infected cowshed, at a space a little 
above the head of a diseased cow. It was also examined, and it 
presented similar indications of very numerous small bodies. 
Not being a professed microscopist, I shall not attempt a descrip- 
tion, but add that they clearly belonged to the organic world, 
and were not in all cases mere debris. We found also one body 
a good deal larger than the rest ; it resembled somewhat a Para- 
mecium, although clearly not one. 
We found no motion whatever, and only this latter substance 
could be adduced as an absolute proof of anything organized 
being present. Next day I examined the same liquid ; and, 
whether from the fact of time being given for development, or 
from other causes, there was a very abundant motion. There 
were at least six specimens in the field at a time, of a body re- 
sembling the Euglena, although smaller than I have seen it. When 
these minute bodies occur, it is clear that more may exist, and 
germs in this early stage are too indefinite to be described. The 
existence of vital sparks in the organic substance of the air 
alluded to is all I wish to assert, confirming by a different method 
the observations of others. It might, of course, be said that 
since the bottle was opened at Mr. Dancer’s the air at that 
place may have communicated them. I answer that, before it 
was opened, a good glass could detect floating matter ; some of it, 
however, as the microscope proved, indefinite enough. 
Finding this, and fearing that the long time needful to collect 
liquid from the atmosphere might expose it also to much dust, I 
used a bottle of about 100 cubic inches dimensions, and putting 
with it a very little water, not above five cubic centimetres, I 
pumped out the air of the bottle, allowing the air of the place to 
