426 BACTERIA OF THE SPUTA 



referred to the first type. In general, the spermatia, unable to 

 multiply through fission, have been seen, at times, to germinate 

 on their own account ; one common example of this kind is 

 exhibited in the ergot. 



Now, we repeat, the existence of fructifications more conspic- 

 uous and distinct from the others (through their large club-like 

 stem and their two zones of colouring, etc.), in the normal parasite 

 of the mouth, would be quite explained, admitting them to possess 

 fertilising elements constituted by spindle-like, comma, and serpen- 

 tine bacilli, already described by us, and holding the other spores 

 as agamous and temporary. Perhaps the persistent spores in 

 this parasite are destined to go through the intestinal tube unin- 

 jured, withstanding the dissolving action of the gastric juices, and 

 emerge into the external world, maintaining in the faeces their 

 vitahty for the future diffusion of the species. 



As regards the function of conjugation, it may be performed 

 on the already formed filaments, as we see in many other crypto- 

 gams, where sometimes the act takes place between two contiguous 

 filaments, the male organ of the one penetrating the female organ 

 of the other ; but nothing prevents us from believing that a ferti- 

 lisation of another kind may have taken place between the male 

 element (spindle-like, comma, or serpentine bacillus) and the 

 mother spore, before the germination of the fertile filament. 



Against these views of ours, a quite opposite hypothesis might 

 be produced, namely, the hypothesis of a commensalism or sym- 

 biosis. In such hypothesis the small sporules, and especially the 

 productions by potJits, would not be proper phases of Leptothrix^ 

 but parasites of the parasite^ or new micro-organisms of another 

 species, come to implant themselves and thrive at the expense of 

 the original parasite in the same way as Leptothrix parasitica^ 

 Kiitzing, which with its slender filaments lodges itself on the larger 

 filaments of Zygnema and Cladothrix dichotoma, as we see in 

 Fig. 21 (stained with vesuvine and methyl violet, then with solution 

 of iodine, magnified to 600 diameters). But, in this way, one 

 might object, for argument's sake, that grapes are so many para- 

 sites of the vine on which they fructify. In fact, consulting the figure 

 in question, anyone can see that the secondary parasitical shoots, 

 Cj c, are less thick than our points, which engraft themselves round 



