Jo°"naf, SchT^sTo'l PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 163 



These micro-ferments of blood-globules behave like ferments first 

 under the form of microzymas, then in chaplets, and bacteria during, 

 or after, this evolution. The starch of flour is rapidly liquefied by 

 them ; the mixture soon presents the characters of soluble starch 

 and dextrine. If pure carbonate of lime is added jireviously to the 

 starch liquid, and it is filtered, after a prolonged reaction the mix- 

 ture lets full a precij)itate occasioned by the oxalic acid formed 

 under the action of the ferments, which sometimes remain in the 

 mycrozymic condition all the while, showing that this evolution into 

 chaplets and bacteria is not necessary to their action upon the starch. 

 The starch mixture is always rendered fluid before the appearance of 

 the bacteria. 



The writers affirm that the micro-ferments still contained in the 

 cells are in a condition for reproduction. They say they have often 

 seen the birth of a great nimiber of small cells, pale, slightly segmented 

 (framhoisees), and much resembliug leucocytes, but usually smaller and 

 more transparent. They have sometimes found twelve to fifteen, in the 

 field of Nachet's No. 7, at one time, in liquid which some days before 

 did not show a single one ; and these cellules have never exhibited the 

 characters of organs in proliferation, such as scission or budding. On 

 the contrary, they have often seen very pale cells scarcely indicated by 

 the micro-ferments agglomerated in spheres and motionless, and others 

 more sharj^ly defined, and further on true leucocytes. 



From the preceding facts the writers conclude that the blood- 

 globules are aggregates of micro-ferments (tnycrozymas) ; that these 

 mycrozymas can develop into chaplets of beads, into bacteria, or 

 bacterides, &c. ; that they behave like ferments ; that the mycrozy- 

 mas of blood-globules give birth to cells like leucocytes, and to other 

 smaller cells, more resembling the globules. These mycrozymas are 

 thus capable, in various media, of engendering cells, and so lead us to 

 believe that the globule of blood, as an organism, is the result of the 

 work of these mere micro-ferments. 



Amongst other things which they conclude — somewhat hastily — 

 is, that respiration belongs to the class of phenomena termed fermen- 

 tation. 



Leptothrix mid Vibrio Bacillus. — MM. Giuseppe Balsamo Crivelli 

 and Leopold Maggi have an important pajier in the ' Eendiconti del 

 Eeale Istituto Lombardo,' ser. ii., vol. i., p. 11, on the above organisms. 

 They affirm that the leptothrix, the vibrio mentioned above and several 

 others, are developments from granules of the vitelline membrane of an 

 egg, or from epithelial cells of the tongue, and that for their appear- 

 ance no spores are required, nor germs floating in the air, but only 

 the transformation of a morphological element. 



The Growth of Organisms in contact with Phenic Acid. — The j)receding 

 authors detail several instances of vibrions and bacteria appearing in 

 animal solutions containing phenic acid ; but they state that the acid 

 kills them when their organization is complete. 



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