NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
345 
squares can represent them, within somewhat smaller limits than 
those obtained by comparing the results obtained by two different 
observers.” * 
“ On the 9th October, Professor Rogers read a [the same ?] paper 
before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston, in 
which he stated that Professor E. A. Morley and himself inde- 
pendently measured 195 spaces, having a magnitude of about 3 ^^^ of 
an inch, each space, however, varying slightly from this value. The 
measures were made with a glass eye-piece micrometer, a Beck’s 
spider-line micrometer, and with a screw attached to the sub-stage of 
the microscope. After the results were prepared for the press they 
were for the first time compared. It was found that the average 
difference between the results for a single space was 32 millionths 
of an inch, and the greatest difference was 12 millionths.| There were 
only four cases in which the difference amounted to one hundred- 
thousandth of an inch.” J 
The Injliience of B,eposs and Motion in the Phenomena of Life . — 
I think I have succeeded in demonstrating tlie existence of a new 
condition necessary to the life of organized beings. It may be 
formulated thus : the development or the multiplication of the elements 
which constitute living beings requires a certain period of repose. 
My experiments were practised on bacteria, § for the following 
reasons : — 
1st. When once they are placed in favourable conditions of 
nutrition and temperature, they multiply in a more rapid manner than 
any other living being. 
2nd. This multiplication is proved in a manner as simple as it is 
accurate. 
3rd. Considering the smallness of the bacteria, and the elasticity 
which is generally attributed to them, the possibility of a mechanical 
lesion of these beings by the motion which is applied to them is 
reduced to a minimum. 
My experiments were made in the following manner : — 
I placed in several tubes of glass, specially constructed for this 
purpose, a liquid favourable to the multiplication of bacteria, || and 
which contained a certain number of living ones. Then, some of 
these tubes were continually shaken, whilst the others, with the same 
contents and conditions of temperature, were left at rest. 
These experiments showed that, in the liquid of the latter tubes, 
* ‘American Journal of Microscopy,’ vol. iii. p. 197. 
t There would appear to be some error in these figures. 
X ‘ Nature,’ vol. xviii. p. 712. 
§ These experiments, commenced in 1875 in the laboratory of Professor de 
Bary at Strasburg, have been continued in the laboratory of M. Claude Bernard, 
at the Museum of Natural History. 
II In my experiments I have always employed the same nutritive liquid; it 
contained in a litre of distilled water : 
10 grammes of tartrate of ammonia (neutral salt). 
5 grammes of phosphate of potash (acid salt). 
5 grammes of sulphate of magnesia. 
^ a gramme of chloride of calcium. 
2 K 
VOL. I. 
