24 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
I need scarcely point out to a body including many Medical men, 
what a wide field there now is in the study of dsease-germs. 
“As a qualification for that study, I should suggest the deter- 
mination of the life-history of the Yeast-flan¢. For there is a strong 
reason to believe that what we know under this form is only an 
aberrant stage in the life of an ordinary Mucor ; its cell-germs 
developing themselves in a very different mode, in a saccharo- 
albuminous liquid, from that in which they vegetate on an ordinary 
mould-producing surface. And while, on the one hand, it was 
long since observed by Mr. Berkerley that a M/ucor may develop 
itself in a confervord form in ordinary water, it is still an open ques- 
tion whether, if growing in an organic fluid, the same Mucor may 
not become the ‘ Vinegar Plant.’ 2 
“T have always, myself, been a believer in the great polymorphism 
of the ‘saprophytic’ Fungi; and I recently read at Southport, a- 
paper on ‘ Disease-Germs from the Natural History point of view,’ 
in which I argued that the extension of the same idea to disease- 
germs will account for many clinical facts observed by able prac- 
titioners of Medicine, which have hitherto received (in my opinion) 
far too little attention,—I mean, the occurrence of what have been 
called hybrid varieties of Exanthemata, or of forms of fever inter- 
mediate between Typhus and Typhoid, or the conversion of an 
endemic malarious remittent into a contagious fever. 
“Tt is because the Microscope thus gives most important aid in 
the working out of some of the fundamental questions of Pathology, 
that I am most anxious to see Medical men training themselves to 
the right use of it.” 
We notice that several important papers appear on the pro- 
gramme for 1883-4 wz.: ‘‘Water,” “The Salmon Disease,” 
“Structural Botany,” ‘Animal Tissues,” ‘‘ The Fertilization of 
Flowers by Insects,” ‘‘The Microscope in Manufactures,” ‘‘ The 
Adulteration of Food,” and ‘‘ Microphotography.” 
FISHERIES EXHIBITION AWARDS.—We are glad to notice that 
Mr. Thomas Bolton, of 51, Newhall-street, Birmingham, has been 
awarded a gold medal for his general exhibition of Invertebrata. 
During the exhibition he has had on view many rare and beautiful 
organisms such as the fresh-water Jelly-fish, Young Smelts, Perch, 
Salmon, &c. There was also shown a new rotifer, Asplanchna 
Lbbesbornii, and the new worm, Haplobranchus cesturina, which 
Mr. Bolton discovered last year. The tenth portfolio of drawings 
will be ready in January. 
LivERPooL MicroscopicaL Society.—The ninth meeting of 
the Session was held at the Royal Institute on Friday, December 
7th, when Mr. A. T. Smith, Jun., read a paper on “The Anatomy 
of the Cockroach, and remarks on the mounting of its various 
