302 NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



should have attracted renewed attention, and is in such able 

 hands as those of Professor Harting. 



I am, yours obediently, 



Geo. Busk. 



To the Edilors of (he ' Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science' 



Spontaneous Generation.— At the Royal Society, on March 

 21st, a pai)pr was read on "Some Heterogeneous Modes of 

 Origin of Flagellated Monads, Fungus-germs, and Ciliated 

 Infusoria," by Professor H. Charlton Bastian, F.R.S. In 

 this conmiunication Dr. Bastian announces results which, 

 whilst confirming the previous observations of MM. Pineau 

 and Pouchet, considerably extend our knowledge concerning 

 the heterogenetic changes liable to take place in the pellicle 

 (composed of aggregated Bacteria) which forms upon an in- 

 fusion of hay. He describes all the stages by which (as he 

 supposes) certain Fungi, Flagellated Monads, and Ciliated 

 Infusoria are produced, as a result of changes taking place in 

 the very substance of the pellicle. Most of the observations 

 were made under a magnifying power of 1670 diameters, and, 

 although more extensive, are confirmatory of others published 

 in 'Nature,' No. 35. Dr. Bastian says, " I now wish to describe 

 other allied processes, and the means by which I am enabled 

 to obtain, almost at will, either animal or vegetable forms 

 from certain embryonal areas which are produced in the 

 pellicle." The simplest mode of origin of Fungus-germs and 

 Monads is thus described : — " The pellicle which formed on 

 a filtered maceration of hay during frosty weather (when the 

 temperature of the room in which the infusion was kept was 

 rarely above 55° F., and sometimes rather lower than this) 

 presented changes of a most instructive character. On the 

 third and fourth days the pellicle was still thin, although on 

 microscopical examination all portions of it were found to be 

 thickly dotted with embryonal areas. Nearly all of them 

 were very small; but a few areas of medium size were in- 

 termixed. The smallest were not more than ^^^th of an 

 inch in diameter, and these separated themselves from the 

 pellicle as single corpuscles ; slightly larger areas broke up 

 into two or three corpuscles ; and others, larger still, into 

 4 — 10 corpuscles. In most of these small areas the cor- 

 puscles were formed with scarcely any appreciable alteration 

 in the refractive index of the matter of which they were 

 composed ; this simply became individualised, so that the 

 corpuscles separated from the surrounding pellicle and from 

 their fellows, still presenting all the appearance of being 

 portions of the pellicle, and exhibiting from 4 to 10 altered 

 Bacteria in their interior. In some cases the products 



