MEKISMOPOEDIA VENTETCITLI. 127 



3. But provided its cellular nature be clearly made oti, it may 

 be arranged with certain forms of lower plants. 



Some writers have regarded it as identical with the ferment- 

 fungus ; but as we have already seen, there is no proof of its 

 identity ; or of its connection with the process of fermentation. 



Lehmann regards it as identical with Merismopcedia punctata ; 

 Meyeu with Gonium tranquill, Ehr., and Agmenellum quadri- 

 duplicatum, Brebisson. But it is distinguished from these species 

 by its tabular-formed masses, by the nearly double size of its 

 surfaces, and their lying more close to each other. 



Robin observes that in the representations of Bennett and. 

 O. Funke the nuclei are not given. 



Development. According to Goodsir, this plant is increased 

 singly through division. Frerichs, who observed specimens ob- 

 tained from a fistula in the stomach of a dog, says that at first 

 the plant appeared in the form of round isolated- cells, seldom 

 two together. They were without enlargements, and about 

 0-005-7 mm. large. At first they were transparent, and exhibited 

 a furrow in the middle, which soon became crossed by another 

 at right angles, each running to the periphery, and dividing the 

 cell into four parts. Each individual was thus divided into four 

 right-angled plates, which were divided from each other through 

 the crossed lines. The most recent case of Sarcina is that re- 

 ported by Neale, in the ' Medical Times ' for July, 1852. In 

 this case there was also found in the vomited matters, the spores 

 of Pemcillam glaucum, and also through the use of reagents the 

 formation of murexid (by the addition of nitric acid and ammonia), 

 and of crystals similar to iiric acid, and the ferment-fungus^ 

 which had not been previously observed in this position. Jenner's 

 case (' Med.-Chir. llev./ Oct., 1853, p. 329) is less interesting. la 

 this case, Sarcina was found in the fluid of the ventricle of the brain 

 which had stood in an open glass ; but whether it was really in 

 the body, or had got into the glass after the removal of the fluid 

 from the body, there was no means of knowing. There had been 

 no vomiting previous to death. Hassall (' Lancet/ April, 1853, 

 p. 338) found the Sarcina in vomited matters, together with 

 starch-granules, the spores of Penicillum glaucum, and other dark 

 brown and oval corpuscles, with free lactic and muriatic acids. 



Treatment. This parasite, as already remarked, is mostly met 

 with through vomiting, at least during life, this is the only way 

 in which it is discovered. The cause of the vomiting is, however, 



