208 EXTRACTS AND ABSTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 



eludes, that these entozoa are introduced in the state of eggs, and pro- 

 bably by respiration, into the lungs of the frogs infested by them. 



Dr. Fick of Marburg describes a case in which he found the nerves 

 of a diseased limb transformed into adipose tissue. 



The disease appears to have commenced in the joints of the tarsus, 

 and the whole limb to have become much swollen and infiltrated, and 

 the affection had existed a long time, when it was amputated. Dr. Fick 

 prepared portions of the Saphenits magnus and Sciatic nerve, several 

 inches in length, tracing the larger branches as far as possible into the 

 diseased tissues ; and on careful microscopical examination, he found 

 an unusual quantity of fat deposited among the fibrillse constituting 

 the nervous branches ; and on tracing these tibrilla? farther into the dis- 

 eased tissues, he found them to become fewer and fewer in number, 

 their place being occupied by fat globules, which, especially in the 

 smaller branches, appeared to be formed on the inner surface of the 

 nervous sheath. At some distance from the diseased tissues, many 

 primitive fibrillae could be observed running through this fatty matter, 

 which gradually, however, became fewer in number, and finally, in the 

 whole sheath none were to be observed, it being occupied entirely by 

 the fat. 



Copper t on the Spontaneous Movement of the Sporules of Nemaspora 

 Incarnata (Pers.)- It is no longer doubted at the present day, that the 

 sporules of many Algae, when mature, are endowed with the power of 

 spontaneous motion, not referrible to any external or physical cause, but 

 to be considered merely as an evidence of life. Similar motions in the 

 sporules of Lichens have been seen by M. Link, and especially in the 

 seed-vessels of Limboria stricta, in which he perceived a slowly pro- 

 gressive motion, which was still evident in specimens which had been 

 gathered thirty years.* Meyeri observed, that the sporules of Mucor 

 mucedo occasionally moved when placed in water. In December of last 

 year (1840), M, Oschatz showed to M. Goppert, sporules of Phallus 

 impudicus enclosed in water, and which, although they had been re- 

 moved from the plant eight weeks, presented a very slow but distinct 

 rotatory motion, and which continued evident even after they had been 

 in the water for a whole year. 



On the first of October, 1841, M. Goppert placed in water some 

 filaments of the remarkable Nemaspora incarnata (Pers,), which were 

 growing upon some willow branches standing in water in his chambers. 

 The water soon dissolved and washed away the gelatinous matter, which 

 probably contains the spores, and gives the mould-like form to the 

 plant, leaving the extremely minute, elongated, and pointed, white- 

 coloured, transparent sporules, free. They require, for their satisfactory 

 examination, a power of 250 linear. To his no little astonishment, M. 

 Goppert observed, that these bodies possessed lively motion, so that 

 they rotated not only in a horizontal, but also in a vertical direction, and 



* Froriep's Notiz. XII. No. 293, p. 104. 



