EXTRACTS AND ABSTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 75 



taking care that the water added rather increases the temperature than 

 lowers it. 



The natural habitat of the Frog-bit is on the surface of ponds and 

 ditches ; in the autumn its seeds fall, and become buried in the mud at 

 the bottom during the winter ; in the spring these plants rise to the sur- 

 face, produce flowers, and grow to their full size during summer. In 

 order to keep them for microscopic purposes, large pans, with earth at 

 the bottom, will preserve them through the winter ; and if left out of 

 doors during the cold months, the pans should be sunk into the ground 

 to preserve the buds from the extreme cold. 



anfc $flbgtract3 from dforngn 3fountal3. 

 [From Oken'slsis, 1839.] 



Mandl has discovered a new spermatic animalcule in man. It has a 

 knot-like ganglion behind the head, while others seem to resemble the 

 spermatic animalcules of the mouse. The seminal fluid was probably 

 vitiated by indisposition. 



Doyere observes as follows on an animalcule found in the sand pro- 

 cured from gutters in the roofs of houses, forwarded to him by 

 Schulze : It is not Macrobiotus hufelandi, though in some particulars 

 it much resembles that animalcule ; he however considers it to be the 

 same in more advanced age, and to be identical with Spallanzani's Tardi- 

 gradus, not so long but thicker than Macrobiotus (280,012 mill, meter) ; 

 it has a somewhat substantial and red-brown skin, and a head with two 

 obvious pairs of appendages like antennae. The body consists of four 

 rings, each having a pair of feet attached, and three rings, with a pair 

 of long threads or spines on the upper ring. The feet are jointed, and 

 have four equal claws not two divided ones like Macrobiotus. The 

 proboscis is protrusible, and consists of three portions ; the points of 

 the jaws are not bent but straight. 



Among the same sand were many smaller individuals of Macrobiotus, 

 probably younger ones ; they had only three claws on the feet, of which 

 two were simple and one divided. This is probably the Trionychium 

 of Ehrenberg. 



Turpin states that in the yeast of beer the so-termed slime actually 

 consists of small Fungi, in a state of vegetation, including Mycoderma 

 (Hygocrocis) cerevisice, Torula cerevisite. Fermentation is a kind of 

 vegetation of these plants in water. * 



Morren on the structure of Agaricus epixylon : The colouring matter 

 presents characters different from those of the flowering plants. There 

 is no skin on the covering of the Fungi. The tissue is similar to that 

 of flesh, and consists of a net of long transparent vessels, which, on 



* A translation of Turpin's paper will be inserted entire in a future number. ED. 



