The origin of life: experiments with superheated saline solutions in hermetically sealed vessels.

  • Bastian, H. Charlton.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The origin of life: experiments with superheated saline solutions in hermetically sealed vessels. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    were often unusually abundant and large (such as are shown in Plate 5, Fig. 26). Bacteria, too, have been often plentiful in these particular tubes. In regard to the nature of the organisms taken from the tubes generally, an examination of Plates 1-5 will show that they have been Bacteria of different kinds, Torulas, and Moulds; though other bodies have at times been met with, apart from obvious crystals and mere concretions, concerning whose nature there has been room for doubt. The photographs from which the illustrations have been made were mostly taken at once—that is, as soon as the samples of deposit, abstracted with a carefully-sterilised pipette, had been mounted on a clean slide, and microscopical examination had revealed their presence. Only a selection from the very numerous photographs taken has, of course, been reproduced. Details concerning each illustration will be found in the explanation of the Plates, but it will be useful here to call attention to some particulars. It may be seen that the Torulae vary very much, not only in size, but in character. Thus, in some they are minute and separate, as in Plate 3, Fig. 14, and Plate 4, Fig. 20 b ; while in others they are quite large, and form continuous groups, as in Plate 3, Fig. 17. Frequently they look homo- geneous and glistening, as in Fig. i ; while at other times they have distinctly granular contents and thick walls, and show, perhaps, vacuoles or else commencing hyphae (Plate i, F'g- 5)- The Bacteria, too, have been of different kinds. Bacilli and Micrococci being the most common, sometimes occurring separately and sometimes in association, and then either alone or mixed with Torulas or with Moulds (see Plates 1-3, Figs. 3, 4, 8, 9, II, 16).