viii THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



These spiral-fibre masses have been met with on seven 1 

 separate occasions, and in another experiment small masses 

 having a close general resemblance were found where the 

 experimental fluid consisted of a solution of potash and 

 ammonia alum containing a fragment of cheese. The 

 degree of spiral twisting and the character of the fibre itself 

 varied somewhat in different specimens and even in dif- 

 ferent parts of the same fibre. Some portions were very 

 fine and gradually attenuated, so that this character, in con- 

 junction with their spiral disposition, gave them a very 

 close resemblance to miniature vine tendrils. Some parts 

 of the fibre seemed solid and not much twisted, whilst in 

 others it widened out into flat expansions : portions directly 

 continuous with them occasionally assumed the appear- 

 ance of very minute fungus filaments. Here the fibre 

 seemed hollow, though it was neither marked off at intervals 

 by dissepiments, nor did it contain protoplasmic masses 

 or granules in its interior 2 . In one of the solutions of 

 ammonic tartrate three distinct masses of the tangled fibre 

 were found, and intertwined amongst the branches of one of 

 them there was an undoubted mycelial mass. This was made 

 up of very delicate filaments, varying much in size even at 

 short distances not distinctly dissepimented, but showing 

 constrictions at intervals. These filaments were not hollow, 

 but seemed to be filled with an almost homogeneous and very 

 minutely granular protoplasm mass. The wall of the filament 



had been accurately known, however, no more success might have 

 attended my efforts to reproduce these fibres than has been met with on 

 many occasions when I have sought to reproduce Sarcina. 



1 Five times in solutions containing ammonic tartrate and sodic 

 phosphate, once where the tartrate was replaced by ammonic carbonate, 

 and once in a solution of sodic silicate and ammonic phosphate. 



2 In this condition it bore a very close resemblance indeed to an un- 

 doubted mycelial growth often obtainable from the old, brownish pellicle 

 which forms on a fluid in which there are some decaying water plants 

 (Pofamogeton) or algse. The filaments of these were equally delicate 

 and devoid of internal granules or dissepiments. 



