POLYMORPHISM OF MICROBES. 277 



tion, as Cocardas states that he has seen them, united 

 and borne by a single hypha, magnified 225 diameters. 



Each form of Penicillium belongs to a special 

 change in the syrup. In syrup which has become 

 turbid, the ferment is in the corpuscular or bac- 

 teridian stage; when the syrup is ropy, it is in the 

 zooglairian or filamentous stage; when it has turned 

 sour, it is in the stage of; aquatic fructification ; 

 finally, when the syrup is mouldy, it is in the stage 

 of aerial fructification. 



Cocardas states that he has observed this really 

 astonishing polymorphism while making use of the 

 ordinary precautions for averting gross errors. Not- 

 withstanding facts of the same kind, which have been 

 put forward previously, notably by Hallier, but which 

 are frequently contradicted by more accurate research, 

 it may be asked whether this is not merely a pheno- 

 menon of confusion, analogous to that which was 

 rightly or wrongly supposed to exist in the case of 

 lichens. Fresh researches, made with greater pre- 

 cision in sterilized liquids, and accompanied by the 

 most scrupulous precautions, are necessary before 

 these facts can be definitively accepted by science. 



Polymorphism of Fungi of the Human Skin. It 

 is more easy to accept, at any rate in part, the poly- 

 morphism recently noted by Grawitz in the fungus 

 of 'Favus (ringworm), which we have already de- 

 scribed under the name of Achorion Schoenleniir. , 



Grawitz asserts that Achorion Schoelenii of ring- 



