96 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Vallisneria, and seen them living and swimming in the cells of Chara ; 

 and Mr. Chantrell had given them demonstration of the hatching of 

 Tardigradia inside the body of another form. But to suppose that 

 because they emerged from a certain cell or seed the vitality of that 

 cell or seed had been transformed into the new form is certainly 

 to draw largely on our faith. No chemist supposes that a solution 

 capable of crystallizing into sulphate of iron will by some hidden 

 process produce chloride of sodium. Why, then, should a conferva 

 spore produce — say, a Rotifer vulgaris ? Finally, the " areas " of sup- 

 posed germination, as seen in the proligerous pellicle of an infusion, 

 the author said had yielded, with a Powell and Lealand ^th, entirely 

 divergent results to him from those which Dr. Bastian had seen. 



