Beprodudion in the Mushroom Tribe. Bij W. G. Smith. 17 



has generally vauislied. Where these infusoria come from, or how 

 they so speedily come into being, is difficult to say. They may 

 possibly be present in a latent state in the juices of the fungus, but 

 I have invariably found, when a single specimen of C. radiatus has 

 been placed on a slide under a covering glass with a drop of water, 

 and this, again, under a propagating glass, that as the milhons of 

 fungus cells quickly disappear, so millions of simple infusoria just 

 as quickly come into being. It seems almost reasonable to believe 

 that the fungus cells themselves become suddenly transformed, and 

 reappear as simple infusoria ; the change would not be quicker or 

 more remarkable than the rapid production of the purple-black 

 spores from the crystalHne and colourless basidia. 



Be this as it may, I have here engraved the abundant infusoria 

 to the same scale as the cells. The tailless monads at F have a 

 rocking Brownian movement, whilst those with tails, G, propel 

 themselves rapidly about after the manner of minute tadpoles. 

 These monads are liable (without care) to be mistaken for the 

 bodies I refer to spermatozoids, from which they are, however, very 

 different. The bacteria are represented at H H, with their various 

 movements (indicated by dotted lines), either straight, zigzag, or 

 rapidly revolving on a central axis ; when they so revolve they 

 cause a miniature vortex amongst the monads and atoms. I have 

 commonly seen one segment move from side to side, as at J, whilst 

 the other segment remained quiescent. I have also seen them bud 

 from the centre, and occasionally they occur with three limbs 

 instead of two, radiating from the central axis. The vibriones are like 

 vegetable screws, and are shown at K. The spores and infusoria 

 neither collapse nor burst in boiling. As for the monads, vibriones, 

 and bacteria, it can hardly be admitted that they are generated 

 spontaneously from inorganic materials ; my experiments rather 

 point in the direction that they are only differentiated forms of 

 already living cells. However this may be, my boiling has not 

 destroyed either vitality or form, and those interested in the subject 

 of spontaneous generation may possibly read the result of the 

 following experiment with interest. A dozen semi-decayed speci- 

 mens of C. radiatus, swarming with minute infusoria, were boiled 

 in a test tube for five minutes and then hermetically scaled at the 

 highest point of ebullition. At the end of a month uie tube was 

 opened and a drop of its liquid contents at once placed under a 

 cover-glass of the microscope for examination. Spores, cells, 

 monads, bacteria, and vibriones were all there, but the latter 

 motionless and apparently dead. In fifteen minutes, however, they 

 showed signs of life, and began to slightly move about ; in thirty 

 minutes the movements were decided in nearly every specimen seen ; 

 whilst in sixty minutes the infusoria darted about with almost the 

 same energy as they did before they were boiled. For a better 



c Z 



