IV. Note on the deportment of alkalized urine

The communication “On the Influence of Liquor Potassæ and an Elevated Temperature on the Origin and Growth of Microphytes,” which, at Dr. Roberts’s request, I have had the pleasure of presenting to the Royal Society, causes me to say earlier than I should otherwise have done that the subject which has occupied Dr. Roberts’s attention has also occupied mine, and that my results are identical with his. In some of the experiments the procedure described by Dr. Roberts was accurately pursued, save in one particular which has reference to temperature. Small tubes with their ends finely drawn out were charged with a definite amount of caustic potash, and subjected for a quarter of an hour to a temperature of 220° Fahr. They were then introduced into flasks containing measured quantities of urine. The urine being boiled for five minutes, the flasks were hermetically sealed during ebullition. They were subsequently permitted to remain in a warm place sufficiently long to prove that the urine had been perfectly sterilized by the boiling. The flasks were then rudely shaken, so as to break the capillary ends of the potash-tubes and permit the liquor potassæ to mingle with the acid liquid. The urine thus neutralized was subsequently exposed to a constant temperature of 122° Fahr., which is pronounced by Dr. Bastian to be specially potent as regards the generation of organisms.