72 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
has found that in certain plants, contrary to what usually takes 
place, this microbe subjects the grains of starch to butyric fermen- 
tation, without destroying, or before destroying, the walls of the 
cells into which it has penetrated. This is the case with the root 
of Adoxa moschatellina.* 
It is easy, with a high magnifying power, to study, under the 
Microscope, the course of the butyric fermentation. It is only 
necessary to guard against the preparation drying up and coming in 
contact with the air, which is fatal to Bacillus amylobacter. 
Crystals of Carbonate of Lime.—In the condition of cystoliths, 
or of very small granular crystals, carbonate of lime is not rare 
in the protoplasm or septa of the cells (for example, plasmodia of 
the Physareze, epidermal cells of several Urticaceze, cell-walls of 
Coraliina and Acetabularia). Acids, and particularly hydrochloric 
acid, dissolve it by disengaging, under the form of bubbles, the 
carbonic acid which it contains. This disengagement, easily 
observed under the Microscope, is very characteristic. 
Crystals of Oxalate of Lime.—These crystals, which are much 
more frequent than the former, are distinguished from them 
chemically by being insoluble in acetic acid, and soluble, without 
disengagement of gas, in hydrochloric acid. 
It is useful to apply these reactions in the case of crystals of the 
quadratic system with six equivalents of water. But for the 
raphides of the monoclinic system, with two equivalents of water, 
they are almost always superfluous, their form being sufficient to 
reveal their nature.—/. R. WZ. S. 
NOTES ON SOME FREE-SWIMMING ROTIFERS. 
By J. E. Lorp. 
(OME time ago an announcement was made, I believe at a 
‘meeting of the Manchester Microscopical Society, to the effect 
that some one was bringing out a work on the “ Rotifera.”. From 
that time to the present I have heard nothing more about the 
subject, although many others along with myself have been looking 
very anxiously for some further information, as a work on this 
subject is an absolute necessity. I should be glad to hear that 
Mr. Saville Kent had taken the matter in hand, as we should then 
have a guarantee that the work would be performed in a manner 
worthy of the subject. In the preface to his magnificent work on 
* Van Tieghem, ‘‘ Anatomie de la Moschatelline,” Bull. Soc. Bot., ii. (1880) 
p- 282. 
