May 17, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
913 
interest, as decomposing animal and vegetable matters 
enter so largely into the pathology of contagion. One of 
the earliest developments of life to be noticed in water, in 
contact with animal and vegetable substances, is that of 
bacteria. The writer referred to the diverse opinions 
expressed by Dr. Burdon Sanderson and Professor Hallier 
as. to whether bacteria are plants or animals ; it was 
evident their place in nature was as the universal 
destroyers of nitrogenous substances, acting as the 
pioneers, if not the producers of putrifaction. He said, 
by a little investigation of the remarkable substance 
<l yeast,” much light would be thrown on the subject. 
He then referred to the results of Dr. Lionel S. Beale’s 
(the well-known microscopist) examinations of yeast under 
the 50th of an inch object-glass = 2800 diameters, who 
says the yeast-cell will be found to be composed of two 
kinds of matter, the one smooth, transparent, and external, 
closed at all points, known as the cell -wall (formed 
material) ; the other soft, diffluent, also transparent, but 
apparently composed of semi-fluid matter (germinal 
matter or bioplasm). Professor Huxley says of this 
bioplasm that it is a substance which contains the ele¬ 
ments carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, that it 
is in all essential respects the substance which forms 
the chief part of the contents of the yeast-plant, that it is 
identical with the material which forms the chief part 
of the white of the egg, that, in fact, although this 
little organism is a 'plant, and nothing but a plant, yet 
that its active living contents contain a substance which 
is called protein, which is of the same nature as the 
substance which forms the foundation of every animal 
organism whatever. Mr. Chantrell then referred to an 
experiment he had made with a thin section of celery, 
which he had placed in an animalcule cage, with a drop or 
two of well-boiled distilled water, forming a film of water 
and celery, about the size of a well-worn threepenny piece; 
in course of twenty-four hours, he noticed that on the out¬ 
side of the chlorophyll granules a film or mucus (bioplasm ?) 
had formed, which, after a while came away, and at the 
same moment active bacteria were to be seen all over the 
field. He could not resist the conviction that this mucus 
or bioplasm was the source from which the bacteria arose ; 
as far as the microscope showed, it was evident the 
material was identical, only that the bacteria had their 
own characteristic movements and the chlorophyll granules 
their own slower ones. Later on, the bacteria were in 
amazing quantities as also were developments of the 
bacteria into filaments and spirilla. 
Pish roe and meat treated in a similar manner to the 
celery produced almost identical results, animal and 
vegetable substances alike developing bacteria, toruke, 
spirilla, etc., etc. 
In course of a number of experiments with boiled 
vegetables it was remarkable how soon ciliated infusoria 
appeared (treated in a similar way to the celery). In an 
experiment with a portion of the Collomia grandiflora 
seed, which was kept for some weeks in the animalcule 
cage, infusorial life was developed in a most remarkable 
manner, from bacteria up to paramecia ; one form of the 
latter regularly swarmed for nearly six weeks, after 
which some of them began to alter in form, and soon there 
were no less than six different varieties. Unfortunately by 
neglect the colony dried up—by the addition of water, in 
course of a few hours amcebce were observed to be develop¬ 
ing from the dead matter. The remarkable results 
o # 
obtained in these and other investigations of vegetable 
tissues led to the treating of garden soil in a similar way, 
and in twenty-four hours as a rule, ciliated infusoria, 
besides other life, were found. There was also another 
reason that suggested this investigation, and that was the 
fact of charcoal having been produced from the carboniza¬ 
tion of garden, arable, and pasture soils, which has been 
patented as a most efficient purifying material for the 
treatment of sewage of towns. In the examination of a 
sample of sewage sludge from Ealing Sewage Works (now 
being treated under Major-General Scott’s Patent Clay 
and Lime process) in a similar manner to the experiment 
with celery, in a very few hours active infusoria appeared, 
and to that extent that the carbonization of this unpro¬ 
mising-looking substance suggested itself—and the result 
you have before you—a perfectly black charcoal, not a 
pure charcoal, but probably containing as much carbon 
as animal charcoal. In sewage under the microscope, 
infusoria can almost always be found. In the examina¬ 
tion of boiled vegetables, under a power of 760 diameters, 
movement has been found in the chlorophyll granules as 
they disengaged themselves from the vegetable tissues ; 
besides these granules are very minute germinal spheroids, 
mere greenish points which have their own characteristic 
movement j these same spheroids, have been observed in 
the body of the spirilla, and also in minute fungoid 
growth. Carefully made infusions of coal, marble, and 
gypsum show these same spheroids which develop into 
many strange forms which have been well affirmed by 
microscopists of note, both English and foreign. 
Mr. Chantrell then quoted some extraordinary effects 
on a fine rose bush by the application of half an inch of coal 
dust in depth on the surface. A sickly plant in a very 
short time quite recovered itself, and the effect on the 
colour of the flowers was something marvellous. This 
account is given in the Revue Horticole. The only 
exception was, that the flowers of a yellow colour alone 
remained insensible to the influence of the coal. It has 
been said that vegetable charcoal has a similar effect. 
Are we to suppose in the case of the coal, that it is due 
to the presence of these minute organisms before described, 
and that these are taken up as food by the plant ? 
The writer then referred to Pouchet’s account of the 
mode of origin of Paramecium viride from infusions of hay 
and Dr. Bastian’s difficulty in getting the same results, 
until he found out that whilst he was making his infu¬ 
sions with hot water Pouchet was making his with cold 
water. Temperature has a marked effect on the character 
of infusorial life. The “ proligerous ” pellicle or scum 
which forms on the surface of decomposing infusions of 
animal and vegetable substances is one of the most inter¬ 
esting objects of study to the microscopist; and he would 
call especial attention to that strange production of nature, 
the spirillum. It constitutes a large portion of scum; it is 
a living, moving thread, always on the move, coiling and 
uncoiling constantly. Examine it under a high power; 
the small spheroids, of a greenish colour, may be discerned. 
In old scum these threads have been seen undergoing 
change, and afterwards these spheroids aggregate, and 
finally develop into amcebce ; these in their turn become 
paramecia, and after a time develop into planarian worms. 
These worms seem to extract from the water, as it were, 
the last of the nitrogenous matter—old infusions generally 
finishing by a deposit of a substance like the lees of yeast, 
all active infusorial life having disappeared. The forma¬ 
tion of scum primarily is thick and viscid, and after a 
while sinks to the bottom, followed by a weaker one— 
which in its‘turn sinks—and a third and fourth one, ac¬ 
cording to the strength of the decomposition. Each time 
the smell is reduced ; nature by these means purifies the 
water. 
-Mr. Abraham said that it was an exceedingly difficult 
thing to trace the changes which took place in microscopic 
objects in fluids. That a new object was found in place 
of one which had been previously there was not a proof 
that one had been changed into the other. Mr. Chantrell 
might, however, be perfectly correct, and no doubt objects 
had been described as distinct animals which were the 
same in different stages of growth. With respect to the 
bacteria, it should be remembered that they were exceed¬ 
ingly minute, so minute that he believed no structure had 
yet been observed in them. He had looked at them with 
a -^th-in. object-glass, magnifying 2000 diameters, and 
had seen none. A paper had been read some time ago 
before the Liverpool Microscopical Society, in which Mr. 
Metcalfe Johnson, of Lancaster, expressed his opinion 
