352 Dr Eschricht's hiquiries concerning 



ovary, although I could never succeed in detaching it. Around 

 this central cord, or rachis, bodies are found with a rather irregu- 

 lar form, but not unlike the ova in the ovary, including a 

 transparent vesicle apparently analogous to the Purkinjian. In 

 fact, they are also very lil^e primitive cells, and the same re- 

 mark might be made upon the ova in the ovary, and perhaps 

 it is an analogy common to these Spermatozoan sacs and to 

 ova. In the wide caudal extremity of the male organs, evi- 

 dently analogous to the uterus, instead of Spermatozoa, there 

 always appeared globular bodies, covered with small grains, 

 and somewhat resembling the dust of pollen. Are these glo- 

 bular bodies sacs for Spermatozoa ? are they analogous to the 

 ova of the female % The results which might be deduced from 

 such an analogy are too singular for me here to venture upon 

 a statement of them. 



Sect. 6. Several Cutaneous Eruptions are Parasite Crypto- 

 gamous Plants communicated hg Contact. — That several dis- 

 eases, particularly of the skin, are to be referred to parasite 

 cryptogamous plants, whilst others are produced by parasite 

 animals, is a fact which has been lately ascertained. I here 

 allude especially to the Muscardine, that contagious disease of 

 silk-worms which is so much dreaded by the breeders of silk- 

 worms in Lombardy, and which is characterized by a white 

 eruption breaking out over the body soon after the death of 

 the worm. M. Bassi found this eruption to be owing to a 

 cryptogamous plant ; and the question occurs, whether does 

 the plant give rise to the disease, or the disease to the plant 2 

 M. Audouin had some specimens of silk-worms labouring un- 

 der the disease sent to Paris, and confirmed the observation 

 of M. Bassi, that the eruption was formed by a cryptoga- 

 mous plant. He examined its sporules, and introduced them 

 into the skin of healthy worms, which speedily sickened, and 

 died in ten days after the appearance of the eruption. A 

 farther examination shewed, that, during the progress of the 

 disease, the plant was grooving beneath the skin. (Ann. des 

 Sc. Nat. 1837, October.) 



Dr Schonlein of Zurich has lately (Mull. Archiv. 1839, 1) 

 examined certain cutaneous affections (especially the Porrigo 



