l888.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 27 



The question as to whether these growths act as ferments, and 

 decompose the solutions in which they are found, has been 

 raised. Those that develop in such solutions, as Barium Car- 

 bonate, Phosphoric Acid, Boric Acid and Zinc Sulphate, can- 

 not possible act on these salts. Experiments show that, after 

 standing for many months, diluted Phosphoric Acid loses none 

 of its strength. The same is the case with Solution of Strych- 

 nia Sulphate. Other alkaloids that have been tried show a 

 decrease in quantity, but they are such as are likely to decom- 

 pose spontaneously, like Eserine, Morphine, Atropine and 

 Cocaine. Old solutions of Sodium Phosphate (HNa2 PO4) con- 

 taining algae give off oxygen gas ; whether by decomposition of 

 the salt, or of carbonic acid has not been determined. Those 

 that do not live upon the dissolved salts must depend for suste- 

 nance upon carbonic acid, absorbed from the air. Several trials, 

 made to determine this point, all gave a common result. Vials, 

 containing spores and aqueous solutions, being weighed, with 

 duplicates having the same solutions sterilized, were found to 

 steadily gain in weight over the sterilized ones, as the plants 

 grew larger. They would not grow if hermetically sealed, and 

 grew most vigorously when often exposed to the air by removal 

 of the stoppers. 



The bacteria no doubt act as ferments, but the larger growths 

 of stringy, jointed organisms probably have some means of 

 decomposing carbonic acid, as higher plants do. This is, of 

 course, contrary to the generally accepted doctrine, that makes 

 them either parasites or saprophytes, and denies them this 

 ability. If fungi are the primitive forms of plant life, surely at 

 some time in their career they all must have been carbonic 

 acid decomposers. In the early genesis of things, they could 

 neither have been parasites nor saprophytes, unless upon each 

 other, and then some of them evidently decomposed carbonic 

 acid. It is irrational and improbable to suppose that they 

 would all lose even the power of reversion to their primitive 

 state. No one has ever experimentally demonstrated that they 

 do not decompose this gas. The distinction is only traditional. 

 Fermenting fungi doubtlessly do, like animals, exhale vast 

 quantities of carbonic acid. But all plants exhale some. Does 

 this prove that they never decompose this gas and release 

 oxygen ? Further examination of this subject is needed, and 



