NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
2G1 
alteration. Other flasks arranged in the same manner, but whose 
tapered neeks terminated in orifices of different size, allowed me to 
observe not only that the putrefaction was clearly established, but that 
its intensity was sensibly proportional to the quantity of air which 
could enter. It was easy in this way to sot up putrefaction at all degrees, 
from zero to the maximum, in different portions of the same matter 
eminently putresciblc and infected, whose conditions of existence pre- 
sented no other difference than that of the greater or less free access 
of air. 
Urine neutralized by potash must bo considered a matter 
eminently fit for the life of micro-organisms, and extremely difficult 
to sterilize by the ordinary methods ; but from the moment when the 
organisms which it contains no longer find oxygen, they lose com- 
pletely the faculty of supporting the bacteria, and with greater reason 
the faculty of producing others. 
The seclusion of oxygen offers a simple means, generally ap- 
plicable and efficacious, for sterilizing organic matters, and furnishes 
tlie most conclusive proofs against spontaneous generation. 
M. Pasteur, after the above communication had been read, made 
the following remarks : — It is seventeen years since I published the 
first facts relative to life without air or anaerobiosis ; since this time I 
have occupied myself with the cause of error which the author refers 
to in the preeeding note, and notwithstanding the very great precision, 
as I think, of my first experiments, I have always endeavoured since 
then to make this precision more perfect. Very recently, on tho 
occasion of tho remarks which I published in conjunction with 
Messrs. Joubert and Chamberland, wo carried still further tho in- 
vestigation of the means proper for eliminating in a complete manner 
the air from our flasks. With this end we combined the action of tho 
vacuum of the mercury air-pump with the properties of white indigo, a 
substance so well known for its effect in tho absorption of oxygen 
since the work of M. Dumas on the subject. 
If the author of the preceding note will go further in his observa- 
tion, if he will remark, as he does not seem to have done, that putre- 
faction is often arrested not by the death of the microscopic organisms, 
but because they have passed to tho state of germs, I do not doubt 
but that he will be led, as was tho case with Dr. Brcfold in regard 
to the development of alcoholic yeast, to retract his assertions, and to 
recognize that the existence of anaerobic beings rests on irrefutable 
proofs. 
In the second part of his note M. Gunning combats the conclu- 
sion of Dr. Bastian on spontaneous generation, and I am glad of tho 
confirmation which he brings to the arguments which I have already 
used against the latter gentleman. 
Haliphysema Tumanowiezii, not a Sponge . — In tho July number 
of the ‘ Annals of Nat. Hist.,’ Mr. W. Saville Kent records tho 
results of an examination he has made at Jersey of some specimens 
of this organism found on the fronds and root-stalk of Maugeria 
sanguinea, in regard to which so much controversy has arisen. 
Prior to the discovery of the living specimens, Mr. Kent had 
