ANATOMIE UND PHYSIOLOGIE. 537 



reddisli bodies, wliicli render the ascus opaque, and prevent the 

 observation of any new formation in its interior. These bodies 

 disappear by degrees, and eight spores make their appearance in the 

 now colourless ascus. Although at first sight, and having regard to 

 their chemical reaction^ these bodies might be taken for protoplas- 

 mic granules, they exhibit ] the following differences — they are 

 elongated, a<?urainate at each end, somewhat thinner in the 

 middle, sharply defined in outline, and apparently divided "trans- 

 versely; they exhibit (even after having been kept a long time) a 

 molecular motion backwards and forwards in the direction of their 

 axis, which motion is only arrested by long digestion in caustic 

 potash and nitric acid, but is not affected by iodine and sulphuric 

 acid, or by sulphuric acid and potash. Moreover they are found 

 in large numbers outside the ascus, i.e. free in the cavity of the 

 perithecium. 



These bodies do not germinate, and cannot therefore be the 

 spores of any parasite, against which supposition their constant 

 appearance in all young perithecia is an additional Jargument. 



After observing that the organisms in question have been some- 

 times looked upon as a secondary form of spore, sometimes as im- 

 pregnative bodies, M. Sollmann adopts the latter opinion, stating that 

 in the young form of the perithecium the mode of their development 

 is conclusively shown. 



This leads to the consideration of the form B. or spermatiferous 

 perithecium. These perithecia produce neither asci nor paraphyses 

 upon their fructifying layer, but contain threads which are toruloseat 

 the apex, and from which by constriction* (Abschniinm^) small cells 

 are given off, agreeing in every respect (chemical nature, incapacity 

 for germination, &c.) with the so-called spermatiain the perithecia of 

 form A. Therefore, M. Solhnann concludes, that these similar bodies 

 in the two forms of perithecia are identical, and he proceeds to consider 

 what relation subsists between the " spermatia " of the two forms of 

 perithecia. Either, he says, the spermatia of the one form of peri- 

 thgcium penetrate into the other, or one of the perithecium-forms is 

 developed from the other. There being in the early stage no opening 

 through which the spermatia from one perithecium could enter the 

 other, M. Sollmann is of opinion that it must necessarily be admitted 



* "We have no word in English equivalent to " Abschniirung." Constriction is 

 perhaps the nearest but is not quite satisfactory. 



N.H.K.-lSGf). 2 



