was next trie d ; the bacteria lived during the fifteen
days; the gas contained C02 7'87, 0 O'OO, N 2‘13,
S 0 2 9010. Similar results were obtained with nitrogen,
nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, carbonic anhydride,
a mixture of H and 0 obtained by the electrolysis of
water, and coal g a s ; in all cases the bacteria lived
well during the experiment. The author next experimented
with a solution of urea (0'98 per cent.) and
phosphate of potash (0*4 per cent.), sowing it with
bacteria. The bacteria lived well during the fourteen
days of the experiment; small quantities of gas were
evolved containing 0‘53 per cent. C02, 2'64 per cent. 0 ,
and 9 6'82 per cent. N. An experiment was made with
spongy iron, air, and bacteria. On the fourth day,
all the bacteria had vanished; the air was analyzed on
the fifth day, and consisted of C02 0*26, 0 0‘00, and
N 99*74 per cent. Experiments were also made with
acetylene, salicylic acid, strychnine (10 per cent.),
morphine, narcotine, and brucine; none of these substances
had any effect on the bacteria. On the other
hand, phenol, spongy iron, alcohol, and potassium permanganate
were very destructive to these microscopic
growths.
Dr. Frankland expressed his satisfaction with the
results obtained by the lecturer in his laborious research.
He confessed that they had surprised him
not a little. The fact that bacteria, which were real
organisms and could not be shielded under the term
putrefaction, lived and flourished in S02, CO, CN, &c.,
seemed to him very extraordinary, and the question
arose whether the germs to which infectious diseases
were probably due were not similarly endowed with a
power of great resistance to ordinary influences. Mr.
Reminiscences and Relics. 57
F. J . M. Page said that Dr. Baxter had proved that
with some fever-producing liquids, their virulence was
destroyed by chlorine and sulphurous acid, and that he
had seen some experiments at the Brown Institution
which led to the same conclusion; so it seemed that
at all events in some cases, the virulence of infective
liquids was due to organic matter, essentially different
from the bacteria observed by Mr. Hatton.
Mr. Hatton then read a second communication “ On
the Influence of Intermittent Filtration through Sand
and Spongy Iron on Animal and Vegetable Matters
dissolved in Water, and the Reduction of Nitrates by
Sewage, &c.” Filtration through sand :—A 14-feet
verticle glass tube, three and a half inches in diameter,
was filled with sand. The water was passed through
at the rate of four litres per day. Experiments were
first made with peaty water diluted with its own
volume of distilled water. The organic carbon decreased
1-527 parts per 100,000, whereas the organic
nitrogren was but little affected. The addition of a
nitrifying material, in the shape of 5 c.c. of stale urine
added to four litres of water, did not promote the
oxidation of the organic nitrogen of the peat during
filtration. A filtered infusion of rape cake was sub-
' stituted for the peaty water, and similar results were
obtained. Some experiments were then given as to the
effect of sewage in promoting the reduction of nitrates.
A 5 per cent, solution of clear fresh sewage containing
no nitrates was added to a solution containing 0 0853
grin, of nitre. The mixture was shaken in a large
stoppered bottle, and estimations of the nitric nitrogen
made from time to time. For a time the nitric nitrogen
steadily diminished, until, in fact, the sewage itself