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weather, but chiefly dry, with a westerly wind. The opera- 
tion was conducted behind my laboratory, in the neighbour- 
hood of places not very clear, it is true, but from which 
the wind was blowing to all parts of the town. I did 
not observe any dust blowing, but if there were dust, it was 
such as we may be called on to breathe. The liquid was 
clouded, and the unaided eye could perceive that particles, 
very light, were floating. When examined by a microscope 
the scene was varied in a very high degree — there was evi- 
dently organic life. I thought it better to carry the whole 
to Mr. Dancer and to leave him to do the rest, as my know- 
ledge of microscopic forms is so trifling compared 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, pre- 
senting 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 ; other- 
wise there would have been more certainty 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 appearance. 
The liquid had also a number of similar bodies floating in 
it. 
It was then that Mr. Crookes sent a liquid which he had 
condensed from the air of an infected cowshed at a space a 
little above the head of a diseased cow. It was also exam- 
ined, and it presented similar indications of very numerous 
