504 PROFESSOR E. RAY LANKESTER. 
He has himself repeated my observations on that organism, 
but he has entirely abstained from pointing out in the text 
of his work how far his observations are simply repetitions of 
those published eleven years previously by me (which they are 
almost entirely), and he has in the most exact details adopted 
the view as to the pleomorphism of Bacteria which I then put 
forward, and on precisely the same grounds, without stating 
that he had been anticipated by me in this respect. 
Not only this, but Zopf actually goes out of his way to 
ascribe to me a view differing from his own, and one which I 
have never suggested. Hither Zopf is writing about my views 
without having troubled himself to ascertain what they are, 
or he is purposely misrepresenting them, when he says 
(* Morpkologie der Spaltpflanzen,’ 1882, p. v) : “ Die Annahme 
Billroth’s und Lankester’s dass alle Spaltpilzformen nur Hiner 
einzigen naturhistorischen Art oder Gattung zugehoren, lasst 
sich nicht aufrecht erhalten.” 
I think Dr. Zopf will find it difficult to bring forward a cita- 
tion from any writing of mine in which I have hinted, even in 
the remotest way, that “all the forms of Schizophyta belong 
to a single natural species.’ Billroth’s declaration on this 
subject was published a year after my statement of the pleo- 
morphic nature of the numerous natural species of Schizophyta, 
and never appeared to me to have any foundation in a general 
botanical experience, but to be the result of the restricted 
observations of a pathologist. 
To remove all possibility of further misapprehension, I may 
be allowed to quote my own words (“A Peach-coloured 
Bacterium,” ‘ Quart. Journ. Micro. Sci., 1873, p. 410) : 
<‘The series of forms which I have found in the growth of 
Bacterium rubescens leads me to suppose that the natural 
species of these plants are within proper limits ‘ Protean.’ 
The natural species among the Calcispongize have 
been shown by Haekel not to correspond at all with the series 
of forms distinguished by his predecessors. . . . Itseems 
exceedingly probable that the same manner of regarding the 
Bacteria will have to be adopted, Cohn’s tribes and genera 
