120 Transactions of the Society. 



common water, any more than at the mould itself on decaying 

 food, &c. 



" I beg and intreat of you not to slight my request. You will 

 find it worth your while to look closely into the nature of these minute 

 beings, as they are related, though remotely, to your own marine 

 animalcula. Everybody wonders at the animalcula infusoria being 

 produced by an infusion of pepper, and such substances ; whereas the 

 difficulty vanishes if they belong to Mucor ; for pepper, if long kept 

 moist, is as liable to grow mouldy as anything else. 



" Having once discovered the little worms in the Ustilago, by the 

 help of the Microscope, I can now see them with my naked eyes, 

 though less distinctly ; and I showed them a fortnight ago to some of 

 my pupils." 



Ellis replied at the end of the month to Linnaeus : — 

 " I have received your obliging letter about the seeds of Fungi 

 being animated. By your letter you seem to think that the seeds of 

 the Fungi are animated, or have animal life, and move about ; my 

 experiments convince me of the contrary. I must first let you know 

 that I am convinced that in almost all standing or even river water 

 there are the eggs, and often the perfect animals, of those you call 

 animalcula infusoria. As soon as these meet with their proper 

 pabulum, they grow and increase in numbers equal to the Musca 

 vomitoria. I often have examined river water and pond water, and 

 scarce ever found it without some species of these animalcula, espe- 

 cially in summer and autumn ; besides, the same animalcula that 

 attack, eat, and move about the farina, or seeds of the Fungi, do 

 the same with other vegetables, as I have lately been convinced of by 

 a fair experiment. I have tried, at your request, my experiments 

 over again, and showed them to D. C. Solander. I will keep these 

 infusions, according to your desire, fourteen days, and examine the 

 particulars you desire of the animalcula fixing themselves, first one, 

 then many more, to the bottom of the glass, and will endeavour to 

 find out what you mean by their growing up into Fungi. If you 

 mean that animalia infusoria, when they are dead, are a proper 

 pabulum lor Mucor, I agree with you ; for I have many animal sub- 

 stances that are covered with Mucor, even between the Muscovy talcs 

 used on purpose for microscopic animals in the Microscope. But 

 what appears to me most difficult to comprehend is, for instance — I 

 have now a Lycoperclon Bovista, which 1 received from our good 

 friend P. Collinson four days ago. 1 put part of it into river water, 

 and in two days I perceived the seeds or farina of it moving about 

 distinctly. The fourth day I perceived the figure of the animalcula 

 that moved them. Are these seeds or these animalcula (for they are 

 evidently distinct bodies) to turn into Fungi, Mucores, or Lycoperda ? 

 This is what I do not comprehend in this new discovery. If the 

 animalcula that moved the seeds of the Lycoperdon [turned into 

 Fungi] it would be amazing ; and again, it would be as surprising 



