66 Sheppard, on Colour in Organised Substances. 
have presented itself to me. I may mention that these egg- 
shaped bodies, surrounded by a gelatinous or albuminous 
envelope, are distinguished by the possession of an undoubt- 
edly flexible, easily ruptured coat, and by a general dotting 
all over the surface, when seen by oblique light. But after 
the first day these bodies were absent, and with them the 
clots and the colour, this latter being entirely transferred to 
the water in which the mass was placed. In a note of the 
27th ult. you say that the question, “Whence the colour?” 
is in every mouth. I have not been inattentive to this point, 
as you know. Having no doubt that the colour was due to 
the presence of some substance dissolved in the liquid, and 
not to any organisms suspended in it, I was anxious to ascer- 
tain what the liquid did hold in solution. Boiled in a test- 
tube, the colour faded, and a flocculent precipitate was pro- 
duced. Bichloride of mercury destroyed the colour and 
procured the precipitate, as also did nitric acid. From these 
tests, of which you were an eye-witness, it was certain that 
albumen was present ; and the disappearance of the colour 
when this albumen was thus artificially coagulated seemed to 
indicate that soluble albumen was a necessary ingredient in 
the process. We have not far to look for the source of this 
albumen, for the mass abounded with slimy clots (limpid, 
changing to red), each of which enveloped a number of the 
above ova. 
The “thousand-grain” bottle exhibited at the microscopical 
soiree contained the solution of these albuminous clots, and 
the colours, both of the clots and the solution, seemed from 
my observations to be inseparable from the agency of the 
monads and the oscellatoriae of the eonfervoid mass. Hence, 
in my first note (April 22), I expressed strongly the opinion 
that “ the colour is due to some form of albumen under the 
influence of some form of life ; as long as the life continues, 
the phenomena of the colour continue, and when it ceases 
they cease.” 
This was the upshot of my first journey, and, to make my 
story continuous, I will here insert your letter on the subject, 
which describes some facts observed by yourself, and also the 
very interesting spectroscope phenomena, communicated by 
Messrs. Sorby and Browning. 
“ Bishopsbourne Rectory, Canterbury ; 
“ April 27 , 1867. 
“ My dear Sheppard, — Accept my best thanks for your 
interesting account of the coloured solution. It was carefully 
examined by my friends in London at our Microscopical 
