274 f. JEFFREY BELL. 



never exhibiting movement ; he cannot agree Avith Bollinger 

 in thinking that the rods are formed by rosary-chains, and 

 says that he has only found the refractive spheroids in dead 

 specimens; while the question of their relatim to Micro- 

 coccus must still remain undecided. Further, this form 

 appears to agree ,\vith other Bacilli, in the possession of 

 lasting spores, by which probably the contagiuni is spread. 

 Brauell has shown that the placenta forms a true filter, and 

 that the blood of the foetus may be free from Bacilli, while 

 that of the mother is full of tliem ; and as the foetus does 

 not suffer from splenic fever, BoUinger is justified in asserting 

 that the organisms themselves, and not the blood, are the 

 cause of offence. 



21. Cohn just refers to the Bacterium of the diseased silk- 

 worm, which he has called Micrococcus bombycis, oval bodies, 

 something like M. urea, arranged either singly or in chains 

 of varying length ; he hopes to go into their history in the 

 next issue of his ' Beitrage.'' 



28. In conclusion, there are a few remarks on the natural 

 relationships of the genera of Bacteria, with a classification, 

 which is appended in full ; the position which Cohn has 

 taken up, and which is noAv generally accepted — that is, that 

 the Bacteria are plants, more closely allied to the Algae than 

 to the Fungi — is again supported by our knowledge of the 

 forms just described; consequently neither Naegeli's name 

 Schizomycetes, nor Cohn's Schizosporeee, are very good; 

 perhaps Schizophyta is the most suitable name for this first 

 and simplest division of living beings, even if its characters 

 are more negative than positive. The cells of the Schizophyta 

 are either free, or united into cell-families; in the latter case 

 they are arranged either in one plane or on the surface of a 

 sphere, or as cellular bodies ; the groups thus produced may 

 be formless, or surrounded by a definite and common enve- 

 lope ; the cell-series may be simple, or exhibit spurious 

 branchings, and these series may be single or imited into 

 bundles. They increase by binary cell- division, and the 

 divided cells may be all in one plane, or arranged as a cross, 

 or in all three directions. Sexual reproduction is un- 

 known ; lasting spores have been frequently observed ; 

 spontaneous movements have been seen, at least for a short 

 time ; they cannot be separated, save for convenience, 

 according to their colours and size ; the cells are various in 

 size and shape. 



