1GG 



WELCKKR, ON SARCINA. 



described. With respect to this, I am able to avail myself 

 of six observations of Sarcina veniriculi, as affording materials 

 for measurement ; and, in the following table, I give their 

 mean dimensions in these instances, with those of the 

 sarcina in the case I am describing, placed opposite each 

 other : 



With respect to the measurements given by various 

 authors of the Sarcina met with in the stomach and intes- 

 tinal canal, they appear, when allowance is made for the 

 different modes in which they have been made, to show 

 sufficiently well that the objects described by these authors 

 are, as regards their dimensions, identical with those placed in 

 the second column of the above table, but not with the 

 urine sarcina. 



It appears to me, therefore, that we have to do with two 

 distinct species. The sarcina of the urine is, in all respects, 

 smaller than that ejected from the stomach. Cubes contain- 

 ing 512 cells do not appear to occur in the urine; and 

 whilst the stomach-sarcina consists chiefly of bundles con- 

 stituted of 512 and 4,006 cells, in that form which occurs in 

 the urine, the bundles, when the number of cells reaches 

 sixty-four, break up into their elements, which separate and 

 represent neAv, isolated individuals. 



It would be interesting to inquire, whether in the sarcina 

 previously observed in the urine, the dimensions were as 

 small as in the preceding instance ; but to determine this 

 no materials exist. 



That the early disintegration of the Sarcina urirue, as 

 well as the smallness of its cells, are merely accidental and 

 dependent upon the condition under which it exists, and 

 that, if introduced into the stomach, it would reach the 

 same size, appears to me hardly probable. 



The determination of the question, whether the sarcina of 

 the urine be a distinct species, or, at any rate, a variety 

 of the common sarcina, is not without interest ; and 1 much 

 regret that no opportunity, owing to the unexpected de- 



