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 Trecul has seen the bac- 

 teria " swell up, and transform themselves sepa- 

 rately," a phenomenon quite identical to that -ob- 

 served by Toussaint. 



En resume. 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 zooglcea, mycoderma, lepto- 

 thrix, etc. To go further would be to lack pru- 

 dence and scientific criticism. 



