278 —t Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 
an Oregon territory in science, which the chemist and physiologist 
must in the meanwhile agree to hold in joint occupancy till it could 
be settled which had the best right to it, or on what terms it should 
be divided. Mr. Goodsir had not done himself the justice to men- 
tion, that in a remarkable case of disease in the human subject, in 
which the contents of the stomach underwent a change exceedingly 
like that which vegetable juices suffer when the lactic or viscous 
fermentation is going on within them, he predicted the great like- 
lihood of a cryptogamic plant being found, and discovered a very 
curious one, the Sarcinula ventriculi. Dr. Wilson would suggest to 
microscopic observers, that it was possible each of the true fermen- 
tations might have a fungus peculiar to itself, and that it was well 
worth their attention to investigate the subject. Sugar could be 
fermented into alcohol and carbonic acid, into lactic acid, or into 
mannite and mucilage. It was desirable to know if a new fungus 
appeared when the fermentation changed its character. Dr. Wilson 
anticipated that no cryptogamic plant would be found when diluted 
alcohol was converted into acetic acid by platina black, because no 
azotized compound was present to yield nitrogen to the fungus, with- 
out which, in all probability, it could not be developed. The acetous 
fermentation, however, differed in several important particulars from 
the others referred to. 
Dr. Douglas Maclagan entertained no doubt, from the observations 
of Mr. Goodsir, Mr. Berkeley, and others, that the fungus present 
in the diseased potato had originated in the leaves, and been propa- 
gated down along the stem to the tubers. He had himself observed, 
and rudely sketched, an organism in the diseased tubers, which, from 
the drawings exhibited this evening, he had no doubt was identical 
with that observed by Mr. Berkeley growing from the stomata of the 
leaves. There was also, he thought, little doubt as to the nature of 
the brown matter which pervaded the diseased portions. Although 
it had not been demonstrated microscopically to be a fungus, the fact 
of its having been separated by M. Payen, by maceration, and sub- 
sequent boiling with diluted sulphuric acid, and its being ascertained 
to contain a proportion of nitrogen equal to that found in analogous 
parasitical vegetable organisms, appeared to warrant the conclusion 
that it really was of the nature of a fungus. He thought, however, 
that the question as to the nature of the potato disease was not 
settled by proving the presence of a fungus in the altered portions. 
It was still a disputable point, whether the fungus was antecedent 
to, or consequent upon, the morbid state of the tubers; it was. yet 
doubtful, whether the discrimination of the first advances towards 
the disease fell within the province of the chemist or the botanist, 
He had frequently observed, on making sections of affected potatoes, 
portions in the interior of the tubers in which no discoloration had 
commenced, but which were in a softened pulpy condition. A por- 
tion of this could at once be lifted out on the point of a knife, and 
on being subjected to microscopic examination, no fungus, or brown 
granular matter could be observed; but the amyliferous cells of the 
tuber, and these contained starch grains, were found in a swollen 
Bee a ee ae eee 
