APPENDIX A. iii 



been very generally regarded as a real living organism. It 

 has been even admitted into this category by the Rev. M. J. 

 Berkeley, who looks upon it as an unusual form of some one 

 of our common mucors, though he admits 1 that all attempts to 

 develope it into the mucor which it represents have signally 

 failed. This itself is a very noteworthy fact, and one which 

 is extremely difficult of explanation in accordance with the 

 supposition that Sarcina is really a living organism. Certain 

 facts observed by Lebert 2 are also well worthy of note. In 

 describing a specimen which he found in prodigious quantities 

 in the fluids vomited by a woman suffering from cancer of 

 the stomach, he says : ' En comprimant les lames de verre 

 entre lesquelles nous examinions ces preparations nous avons 

 4t6 frappe* de la sensation sablonneuse, qui ne pouvait apres 

 mur examen, tenir qu'a la durete' des Sarcines ce qui nous 

 faisait supposer qu'elles avaient une enveloppe mine'rale, 

 peut-etre silicieuse.' Without reference to Lebert's more 

 special suggestion, as to the siliceous constituents of Sarcina, 

 the fact of the large quantity of mineral matter entering into 

 its composition, and of its occurrence in this and in other 

 cases without any admixture with real fungoid organisms, 

 when taken in conjunction with the failure of all attempts to 

 induce it to undergo any further process of development, 

 suffice to suggest the possibility of its being not a living 

 organism at all, but rather a statical aggregate which grows 

 after the manner of the modified crystalline forms described 

 by Mr. Rainey. 



My supposition that Sarcina is not a living organism has 

 of late been gradually more and more strengthened. I have 

 been influenced by the following considerations : i. Sarcina 

 has only been seen to undergo a process of growth and 



'British Fungology,' 1860, p. 69. 



2 And quoted by Robin in his ' Vg<5taux Parasites,' 1854, p. 337. 

 a 2 



