126 VEGETABLE PAEASITES. 



prismatic, with rounded corners or even almost spherical, refract 

 the light strongly, and contain nucleoli. Sometimes nothing is 

 to be seen in the cells but these four nuclei. Yirchow, who seems 

 to have examined these bodies carefully, maintained that they 

 were neither nuclei nor protuberances, but that they were depres- 

 sions from which the furrows proceeded, or a point of crossing 

 from which a new furrow took its origin. 



Neither Virchow nor Lebert ever saw this fungus present at 

 the same time with the ferment-fungus, but Lebert saw it at the 

 same time with the Alga filiformis oris. 



Medium. The fluid in which these Alga flourish sometimes 

 gives an acid reaction, as, for instance, in the vomited matters 

 in which Wilson discovered acetic, muriatic, and lactic acids. It 

 is less frequently alkaline, but has been found by Virchow in 

 ammoniacal pus. 



Method of observation. The matter containing the plant 

 should be collected in the most convenient manner. Vomited 

 matter should be allowed to rest, and the deposit collected. 

 This should be submitted to the microscope, with a magnifying 

 power of not less than 600 diameters. 



Nature and character of this formation. John Goodsir dis- 

 covered this organism in 1842, and indicated its vegetable nature, 

 which is held by naturalists at the present day ; but Busk and Link 

 regarded the Sarcina as an animal belonging to the genus Gonium, 

 and Schlosberger maintained that it was nothing more than 

 decomposed primitive muscular fibre. The views of the first two 

 pbservers were refuted by the brothers Goodsir, Harry and John ; 

 the last was opposed by Virchow, who shewed that the cubical 

 portions of Sarcina were much larger than any that could result 

 from the decomposition of the bundles of muscular fibres. He 

 also showed that the muscular fibre entirely disappeared in acetic 

 acid, whilst the Sarcina was only distended, and that muscular 

 fibre disappeared in water, whilst Sarcina remained. With re- 

 spect to the view that it is a product of the decomposition of 

 the tissue of the animal body resembling fatty degeneration, 

 Virchow remarks that it is insoluble in ether. Hence he arrives 

 at the following results : 



1. The Sarcina is no product of decomposition. 



2. It stands in no relation to fermentation, or certain other 

 morbid symptoms. 



