SUOKT NOTES. 



!53 



author arrives at the conclusion that all these are terms in the develop- 

 ment of one and the same organism, and his position is that the 

 chance of this same identical form turning up as the result of spon- 

 taneous production from inorganic matter is mathematically infinitely 

 minute. His experiments showed that the spores (or " conidia ") of 

 ordinary Penicilliiim mould are capable, in the absence of light, of 

 sending off a mass of Torula cells, which either separate and are 

 often found interspersed among the filaments of the usual mycelium 

 (the whole then closely simulating the structure of a Lichen), or 

 develope themselves into a Clados]}ora-\\kQ fungus. Sacteria, like 

 Torula, are also considered to be developed from the conidia, and like 

 it are regarded as the simplest stage of the fungus ; the two being, 

 perhaps, somewhat analogous to the macro- and micro-gonidia oi Algce, 

 These views are expressed in the accompanying diagram, for which we 

 are indebted to Messrs. Churchill. — The other paper is by Prof. 



Penicillium. 



'/ Leptoflirix. 



Torula. 



Bacteria. 



Coiiidium. 



Thiselton Dyer, who attacks the theory on wider grounds. Dr. 

 Bastian, in publishing his experiments, endeavoured to raise a strong 

 a p7'iori argument in their favour, by showing that they were con- 

 formable to, and even deducible from, the theory of " Evolution." 

 A note from Prof. Thiselton Dyer in our last number (p. 325) proves 

 that this view is, at any rate, not shared by Mr. Spencer, who is the 

 chief expounder of that theory in this country ; and in the pnpcr be- 



VOL. VIII. [NOVEMBER 1, 1870.] 



