342 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



closely allied to the Insecta ; they number about 250 species, the 

 Mandibulate parasites occupying the highest, and the Haustellate the 

 lowest position in the order. 



Dr. Burnett also stated that he had recently found vegetable para- 

 sites in the human ovum. They belonged to a species of Conferva 

 similar to the yeast plant. They appear in triplets, or by twos, and 

 were about one 4,000th of an inch in diameter. It was difficult to 

 account for their presence in such a situation, as their spores would 

 be too large to be deposited from the circulation by passing through 

 the walls of the blood-vessels. 



FALL OF DUST. 



A REMARKABLE fall of dust accompanying snow took place at Olster- 

 holz, near Detmold, in February, the wind being from the southwest. 

 It covered the earth to the depth of two thirds of a line. Ehrenberg 

 has detected in it fifty organic forms, of which forty had been before 

 observed by him in similar circumstances, while ten species were for 

 the first time observed in dust transported by the winds. None of the 

 species were new. Monatsbericlit of the Berlin Academy, April. 



ON PARASITIC LIFE. 



h 



DR. J. LEIDY has established the fact, that cryptogamic vegetables 

 exist, as a normal condition, in the interior of several species of 

 healthy animals. He describes three new genera of entophytes, 

 Euterobrus, Cladopliytum, and Arthromitus, all being confervoid or 

 mycodermatoid. All are found growing from the mucous membrane 

 of the small intestine and commencement of the large intestine of 

 Julus marginatus (Say), and from entozoa inhabiting these cavities in 

 the same animal. They were uniformly found in one hundred and six- 

 teen examinations of animals of this species, made immediately after 

 death. In one instance, an ascaris, three lines long, " had no less 

 than twenty-three individuals of Euterobrus, averaging a line in 

 length, besides a quantity of the other two genera, growing upon it, 

 and yet it moved about in so lively a manner that it did not appear the 

 least incommoded by its load of vegetation." 



The important point in these observations is, that they show that 

 cryptogamic vegetables may exist in the internal organs, and upon 

 entozoa inhabiting these organs, without disturbing the health, and 

 even as an ordinary and normal condition. This does not rebut the 

 idea that other Cryptogamia may produce diseases. They are known 

 to exist in apthae, in many diseases of the skin, have been found 

 in the secretions of cholera and several acute diseases, and were 

 lately observed by Dr. Leidy in a case of softening of the stomach. 

 Whether in these instances they are the cause or effects of the morbid 

 state, or even a mere coincidence, is not decided. Dr. Leidy regards 

 the microscopic forms known as Vibrio as vegetable. In this opinion 

 he is supported by other observers. After mentioning the discovery 

 of several species, and a new genus of entozoa, he notices the exist- 



