190 ON THE SO-CALLED CHIGNON FUNGUS. 
■ 
the first name, which is also the most appropriate, the Alga looking like a 
Maltese cross, the arms of which are pushed together. 
" The occurrence of the plant on false hair is, Dr. Eabenhorst thinks, easily 
explained by the hair being treated with water mixed with honey, etc. Dr. 
Eabenhorst holds the species to be new, and has asked me to suggest a name, 
which I have done by calling it Plewrococcns Beigeli, in the hope that it will 
meet with your approval. If you should have any doubt about the newness 
of the species, please to refer to Mr. Archer, of Dublin, the best British A - 
gologist. If he should know the plant already, our name must be suppressed, 
otherwise it will stand. 
;t Yours, etc., 
« Dr. Beigel, M.R.C.P. " F. KuCHENMEISTEK. 
On the 17th of March, Dr. Kuchenmeister addressed a letter to the 
Vienna ' Zeitschrift fur Practische Heilkunde,' which that paper pub- 
lished in its issue of the 22nd of the same month, and of which the 
following are the salient points : — 
" In one of your last numbers you speak of certain parasites which rro ■ 
Lindemaim has discovered in the Chignons. Allow me to tell you what 
know about the matter. On the 8th of March of this year, Dr. Beigel, of Lon- 
don, sent me a few Chignon hairs, in different parts of which (not on the point 
only, as in Lindemann's statement) the naked eye could perceive one, or some- 
times t wo, minute points or knots, varying in size. These knots Dr. Beigel foun 
to be a new microscopic plant, which he asked me to determine. Feeling 
I was not quite capable of handling the subject as it ought to be handled, 
invited our esteemed Dr. Eabenhorst to assist me in examining the plant 
Selecting the largest visible knot, we found an organism which (correspon - 
ing with Dr. Beigel's drawing) completely agreed with that of Pleurococcus, 
Meneghini. The PZeurococcece differ from the Protococcece, Agarclh, m «* 
single cells undergoing a quaternary division, and the lines of division 
different directions, whilst in the Protococcece the division of the cells is binary, 
or one might describe it as an accumulation of granules in the cells. o 
has confounded the two. The species occurring on Chignon hair appeare 
to us, and we named it, after its discoverer, Pleurococcus Beigeli. W ltli L 
ception of colour, which our species has not, one finds analogous forms D 
• 'J' nln^fffi' 
in Kutzing's * Tabula? Phycologicfle ' i. plate 3 (Protococcus viridis, gto 
tus, communis, a et 0) and plate 4 (P. membraninus, dimidiatus, t her ma » 
minutus). t 
11 A few days later, I saw much smaller points on the Chignon hair, an ^ 
with a parasite which differed considerably in structure from the above-n > 
d 
and this discovery was confirmed by Dr. Eabenhorst. The para»i e g 
ray-like, from a gelatinous protoplasm ; sometimes it would seem as i 
penetrated into the body of the hair ; and if this should be confirmed, the pw» 
would certainly be closely related to the Fungi. The whole exhibite da ^ 
colour like that brought about by chrome or iodine, inducing Dr. B* 
to ask me whether I had dyed the hair with iodine (which, however, W 
