32 PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 



organism in question, one -wliicli finds a place in so many botanical text- 

 books, both by figure and description, as well as on lecture-diagrams, as 

 a noteworthy example of a single-celled independent plant, and at the 

 same time endowed with the power to become copiously ramified, so 

 to speak, ' root,' ' stem,' and aerial portion combined in one ' cell ' only. 

 I venture to think it hardly less surprising to find this seemingly so 

 passive and inert little chlorophyllaceous alga, met with, in suitable 

 situations, all over Europe, gravely tried and found guilty, on so 

 slender evidence, of being the atrocious ' cause of the ague.' 

 ■ " In the mud-samples so kindly forwarded by the Editor, there 

 occurred some fragmentary examples of a plant wholly different from 

 the foregoing — so small in quantity as to be quite invisible to the 

 unassisted eye — but which disclosed itself amongst the debris taken 

 up along with the Hydrogastrum. This was a Clithonoblastus, Kiitz. 

 (Microcoleus, Harvey), and was most probably the same as Oi. cerugi- 

 neiis, Kiitz. Just where one of these algse would be found it would 

 not be very surprising to meet with the other. Can this latter be 

 chargeable with being the 'cause of the ague'? It is wholly a 

 diflerent kind of alga from Hydrogastrum, without any point of homo- 

 logy or affinity therewith, except, perhaps, their common love for the 

 damp clayey substratum afforded by the partial drying of the swamps, 

 near which, unfortunately, from some occult cause, the ' ague ' is prone 

 to hover." 



The Mucous Membrane of the Larynx. — Dr. W. Stirling contributes 

 a note on this to a recent number of the 'Medical Kecord.' He states 

 that Mr. P. Coyne has arrived at the following conclusions upon this 

 subject. The mucous membrane of the larynx is formed in a layer 

 subjacent to the epithelium, by a reticulated tissue analogous to 

 lymphatic tissue ; it thus approaches the structure of the mucous 

 membrane of the small intestine. Lymphatic organs, analogous to 

 the closed sacs of the small intestine, exist in the superficial layers 

 of the mucous membrane. The author is of opinion that the presence 

 of these glands may account for the development of certain ulcerations 

 in the larynx diu'ing fever, as in typhoid. On the free border of the 

 inferior vocal cord certain vascular, and probably nervous papillae, are 

 to be found. These papillse are specially developed on the anterior 

 half of the vocal cords. From the preparation of more than twenty- 

 five human larynges, the author has satisfied himself that the sub- 

 mucous serous sac, admitted by Fournie, does not exist. 



TJie Nerve of the Digestive Canal. — A paper on this subject which, 

 though short, is not devoid of interest, appears in the ' Medical 

 Record,' April 29th. It is really an abstract of Professor Arnstein's 

 communication of the results obtained by Professor Gonjaens. It is 

 to the following effect : — 



1. Ganglion cells occur in considerable quantities in the walls of 

 the oesophagus of the frog. 



2. The nerve-stems of the mucous membrane of the oesophagus of 

 the frog lie generally in lymph-spaces. The fine nerve-fibres, devoid 

 of the white si;bstance of Schwann, which branch from these nerve- 



