54. PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. — [Monthly Microscopical 
had followed French writers in referring vibrios to the animal king- 
dom; but in this he (Mr. Slack) could not agree with him, for he 
had no doubt that they more properly belonged to the vegetable 
kingdom. If not, it was clear that the vinegar plant must be regarded 
as a true Zoophyte, with plant and animal organization mixed together. 
He wished to make an observation on the term “ Catalytic action,” 
which Mr. Bell had used. He could not help thinking that the word 
Catalysis had been employed by chemists to cover ignorance, and no 
intelligible meaning could be assigned to it. Alluding to Mr. Bell’s 
remarks on Penicillium glaucum, in which he contradicted the opinion 
that it was one of the forms of the yeast plant, he (Mz. §.) did not 
think Mr. Bell’s observations would invalidate the ordinary belief of 
Fungologists. He nevertheless desired to bear his testimony to the 
eneral value of Mr. Bell’s paper, and the great amount of research 
which it displayed. 
Mr. Hogg said he felt convinced that if we desired to obtain a 
thorough knowledge of these fungoid processes it could only be done 
by combining the knowledge of the chemist with that of the micro- 
scopist. But as opposed to what had falien from Mr. Slack, he had 
very recently attended a lecture delivered by a learned professor of 
chemistry, in which the lecturer undertook to demonstrate that the 
yeast-cell was an animal cell ; must no longer be regarded as belong- 
ing to the vegetable kingdom. He begged to thank Mr. Bell for the 
opportunity afforded him of witnessing the various experiments which 
had just been related, and which had removed from his mind some 
erroneous views hitherto entertained on this subject. He (Mr. H.) 
questioned the use of the term spontaneous generation. The term 
used should express the mysteriousness which seemed to surround 
some of these processes of fermentation, rather than that of conveying 
any idea of spontaneity. Many of the mysterious phenomena in 
experiments like those recounted by Mr. Bell, had resulted from care- 
lessness in conducting the experiment; for instance, that of not 
boiling a solution sufficiently long to destroy the germs contained 
in it. The destructive process employed by Mr. Bell enabled him 
to say that nothing like life remained behind to set up further change 
or ferment. 
Mr. Brooke said he understood the term “ spontaneous generation” 
to mean the development of organic germs of some kind, independently 
of and without the pre-existence of any germ developed from organic 
matter. He believed Mr. Bell had used the term in a different sense 
to this, since he had alluded to the pre-existence of germs which pro- 
duced the organisms. : 
The President said he understood Mr. Bell to say that he had never 
found one fungus pass into another. Each fungus retained its own 
peculiar character throughout the whole of its existence. 
Mr. Bell, in rising to acknowledge a vote of thanks, remarked that 
he could not exactly agree with the remarks made by Mr. Slack with 
reference to vibrios. He was of opinion that they seemed to have a 
determinate object in view, and also appeared to have some powers of 
locomotion. They could not therefore be classed among vegetables, 
