480 C. CLIFFOED DOBELL. 



before long someone to whom fresh material is accessible 

 will reinvestigate the matter thoroughly.^ 



Regarding yejdovsky's filamentar forms from B r y o d r i 1 u s , 

 my opiiiion is that they are really Fungi, similar to those 

 Avhich I have myself described. Gruilliermond (1907, 1908) 

 expresses a similar opinion — ^'' nous sommes a peu pres 

 certains, apres Texamen attentif de ses (i.e. Vejdovsky's) 

 preparations, qu'elle correspond a une moisissure. Nous 

 n'avons trouve en tons cas, dans cette espece aucun des 

 characteres des Bacteries" (1908, p. o7). 



I think there can be no doubt that the Bacterium-like 

 organisms, which I have already described (p. 455), are really 

 Fungi, allied to the Saccharomycetes. The evidence for this 

 is chiefly derived from two features of their life history — (1) 

 the assumption of a characteristic yeast form, which repro- 

 duces by budding, (2) the formation of mycelium-like out- 

 growths." Similar outgrowths have been observed in yeasts 

 by other workers (cf. Janssens and Mertens, 1903). To this 

 same group of organisms belong — ^I believe — two other forms 

 which have recently been described, namely, Kermiucola, 

 a parasite of: the body cavity of Coccid insects (Sulc, 

 1906), and Bacillopsis stylopygEe, from the cockroach 

 (Petschenko, 1908). Both these forms ajipear to me to be 

 indubitably Fungi, and not Bacteria (cf . also Vejdovsky, 

 1906). The fact that my organisms, Kermincola and 



^ It is to be gathered from the discussion which lias taken phice regard- 

 ing B. ganimari (Guilliermond, 1907, 1910; MencL 1909) that Schau- 

 dinn — who saw Yejdovsky's preparations at the Zoological Congress in 

 Berne — at first expressed the opinion that the organism was a yeast. 

 Later, however, he accepted Yejdovsky's interpretation of it as a 

 Bacterium — an opinion shared also by Schewiakoff. 



- The formation of outgrowths is of course occasionally observable 

 in true Bacteria (Bacilli, Bacteria, Spirilla). It is usually 

 observed only in involution forms. Meyer (1901) interprets the out- 

 growths as a reminiscence of mycelium formation in the ancestors of 

 Bacteria — believing them to be of fungal origin. For my own pai-t, I 

 do not believe that the Bacteria have any tiling whatever to do with the 

 Fungi, and do not regard this as a correct interpretatiDU of tlie pheno- 

 menon. 



