62 Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin. 



small bodies of from 0,00058-0,00068" in length, which resemble in 

 form the ribless Navicula, or Agardh's Frustulia coffeoeformis. They 

 consisted of two plates (Schalcheri) united in the centre by a granu- 

 lar substance. The bodies are at the commencement undivided, they 

 afterwards split lengthwise, and are only held together by the gra- 

 nular substance ; at last they appear to separate completely. They 

 are formed in cells, in which several were found together. From 

 this and from the want of silica in the plates, they are perfectly di- 

 stinct from the Navicula and similar infusoria : they appear to be- 

 long, together with the Psorospermia of fishes, to a peculiar section 

 of parasitical, vegetative organic forms of specific structure. 



The authors have also instituted some inquiry into the devel- 

 opment of fungi in the lungs and air-cells of birds. It is not 

 the mould in the lungs of birds just dead, described by Messrs. 

 C. Mayer, Jager, Heusinger, Theile, and still more recently by M. 

 Deslongchamps, but flat fungous bodies of a firm and uncommonly 

 tough substance. M. Deslongchamps evidently had them before 

 him, they formed the substratum of the mould filaments, which 

 were developed in the lungs and air-cells of a diseased asthma- 

 tical eider duck ; but he is mistaken with regard to the principal 

 thing, as he considers this disease as an albuminous exudation. The 

 fungoid bodies have been observed once in Stockholm and once in 

 Berlin under quite similar circumstances. The first case was that of 

 a Stryx nyctea from Lapland, which lived a part of the winter in 

 Stoekholm, but became sick and short-breathed, and then died. It 

 was dissected by M. Retzius. The preparation has been preserved 

 a long time in the Anatomical Museum at Stockholm. The lungs 

 and air-cells are everywhere covered with fungoid, flat, circular, 

 whitish yellow bodies, which have concentric rings on the surface, 

 are in general somewhat hollowed out in the centre, and sometimes 

 provided with cup-shaped corpuscles on the surface, of very small 

 size, measuring from one to two lines and more in diameter. They 

 have a firm hold, but may be removed without injury to the mucous 

 membrane. Several adjacent ones also join, and then have the outer 

 rings in common. At two places the air-cells were thickly covered 

 with confluent bodies from 1 to \\ line in depth, so that there was 

 a continuous, firm, and almost cartilaginous layer. The second case 

 observed in Berlin was that of an old marsh harrier, Falco rufus, which, 

 after having been shot in this neighbourhood two years before, had 

 been brought to the Zoological Museum. A student, M. Dubois, 

 found several white, cup-shaped, flat bodies in the air-cells, and 

 brought a piece of the ventral part of the trunk with the kidneys, 

 which were lined with some of them, to the dissecting-room, asking 

 what they could be. M. Miiller could not perceive any structure 

 in them. In Stockholm, last autumn, there was again an opportu- 

 nity of inquiring into the structure, but it was not attended with 

 success. The firm tough mass appeared under the microscope as if 

 coagulated. M. Retzius since presented a half of the preparation to 

 the Berlin Museum, which afforded M. Miiller the opportunity of de- 

 voting a longer time to the microscopic investigation of these enig- 

 matical bodies. They certainly possess some structure, but it is 



