Abstract
IT is well known that water—whether tap or ordinary distilled—possesses the property of contaminating, with a growth of bacteria, any “cultivation” liquid inoculated with it, but the morphological condition in which these organisms occur in it is open to question; it may be supposed on the one hand, that they exist as developed bacteria, and are not apparent under the microscope merely in consequence of their scarcity, as shown by Mr. Lister in the account of his recent admirable investigation of the lactic fermentation, to be the case with some specific ferments, or, on the other hand, that they are present as “germs”of the bacteria, bodies yet far more minute than the mature forms, and on that account invisible—ultra-microscopic. Which of these alternatives is true I have endeavoured to determine by experiment, the details of which will shortly be published, and the general result is here briefly communicated.
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DOWDESWELL, G. Bacteria in Water . Nature 17, 323 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/017323a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/017323a0