DEVELOPMENT OF THE BACTERIA. 135 
bacteria into moulds and mildews. In some recent 
cultivations of moulds, made with care, Nageli has 
never observed the formation of schizomycetes, 
and reciprocally. Are we not permitted to be- 
lieve, now that we know of the formation of 
sporangia among the bacteria, that the micro- 
scopists who sustain a polymorphism so extended, 
have taken these organs, of which they have not 
been able to follow exactly the development, for 
the sporangia of Mucorini? This explanation is 
the more admissible as Trécul has seen the bac- 
teria “swell up, and transform themselves sepa- 
rately,” a phenomenon quite identical to that ob- 
served by ‘Toussaint. 
En résumé. The only change of form well 
demonstrated in the present state of science, and 
the only one which can be compared to natural 
polymorphism, such as it exists in a great number 
of fungi, consists in the transformation of spores 
into Bacteria, Bacteridia, Vibrios, etc., and in the 
different modes of grouping that the cells of bac- 
teria take in becoming zooglea, mycoderma, lepto- 
thric, ete. To go further would be to lack pru- 
dence and scientific criticism. 
