THE STRUCTURE OF BACTERIA. 47 



always dependent npon the integrity of the 

 living cell which alone is able to pass on the 

 torch of life in legitimate succession. 



Statements about the origin of bacteria 

 from other cells and cell elements through 

 " anamorphosis of protoplasm " really a sort 

 of modified spontaneous generation rest upon 

 an error due to the mistaking for bacteria of 

 cell-granules in milk, blood and tissues, as well 

 as of fibrin secretions and artificially altered 

 nuclear elements. Fibrin threads have also 

 been mistaken for the mycelia of moulds. 

 Fokker described the origin of the anthrax 

 bacilli as taking place by " heterogenesis " out 

 of other cells, but Koch proved that elongated 

 cell-nuclei had been mistaken for bacteria. 

 Roy, Brown .and Sherrington discovered fila- 

 ments in the wall of the intestine which they 

 identified as hyphaeof one of the Chytridiacea 

 and believed to be the cause of cholera till 

 H. Kiihne and Hueppe showed that the fila- 

 ments were not mould-hyphae at all, but shreds 

 of fibrin. In like manner Lacerda believed 

 that he had discovered the essential element 

 of snake-venom to be micrococci, but Hueppe 

 was able to prove that these supposititious mi- 

 crococci were granules derived from the gland- 

 cells. 



The ferments, by virtue of their independ- 



