ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 117 



Floating Rivularia.* — Professor F. Cohn describes a floating 

 Bivularia forming a " flos aqufe " on the surface of a marsh. He gives 

 it the specific name Bivularia fluitans, and considers it identical with 

 Eabenhorst's Gloeotrichia pygmsea. 



Glycog-en in Beer Yeast. f — Dr. L. Errera finds that the cells of 

 Saccharomyces cerevisiee in active growth contain glycogen in con- 

 siderable proportion. Sometimes the entire cell-contents consist of 

 this substance, which doubtless plays the same part as starch in the 

 higher plants. The presence of glycogen explains many earlier 

 observations respecting yeast, for instance, that it yields sugar when 

 boiled with dilute acids. 



Kise of Micro-organisms in Damp Soil.| — Herr J. Soyka has 

 determined, by experiment, the possibility of micro-organisms rising 

 in a capillary tube of water, and hence concludes that they may be 

 carried up to the surface of the soil by capillary attraction. 



-ffitiology and Pathology of Gonorrhoea of the Uretlira.§ — Dr. 

 Bockhart has cultivated by inoculation the gonococci obtained from 

 gonorrhoea patients. They soon produced suppuration, and in the 

 matter were found large numbers of gonococci, collected mostly in 

 larger or smaller groups, and having often the form of diplococci. 

 Further investigation showed that these gonococci were the patho- 

 genous bacteria of gonorrhoeic affections. When brought into contact 

 with the mucous membrane of the urethra, they make their way, 

 probably between the epithelial cells, into the lymph-passages of 

 the fossa navicularis, where they increase and produce violent 

 inflammation. Thence they penetrate into the blood-vessels and 

 ■upwards towards the bladder. Finally they destroy the colourless 

 blood-corpuscles which they have attacked, either in the tissue itself, 

 or in passing through the epithelial layer, or in the gonorrhoea 

 secretion. Those that remain in the tissues perish either there or in 

 the blood. 



Micrococci of Erysipelas. || — Dr. Fehleisen has observed the 

 uniform presence of micrococci in the lymph-glands of the parts of 

 patients affected with erysipelas ; and by culture on pepton-gelatin 

 infusion of flesh, and infection in rabbits, has proved the cocci to be 

 the cause of the disease. 



Zooglceae and Related Forms.lf — Dr. W. Trelease describes several 

 new species of chromogenous bacteria, as well as a new variety of 

 Saccharomyces. Slices of boiled potato answered best for their culture, 

 though other substances were previously tried. The cultures were 



» Ber. Schles. Gesell., 1884, pp. 273-5. See Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xxxii. 

 (1885). Rev. Bibl., p. 110. 



t Comptes Rendus, ci. (1885) pp. 253-5. Cf. this Journal, lii. (1883) p. 397. 



X Prag. Medicin. "Wochenschr., 1885. See Naturforscher, xviii. (1885) p. 434. 



§ SB. Phys.-Med. Gesell. Wurzburg, 1883, pp. 13-9. See Bot. Centralbl., 

 sxiii. (1885) p. 143. 



11 SB. Phys.-Med. Gesell. Wurzburg, 1883, pp. 9-13. See Bot. Centralbl., 

 xxiii. (188.')) p. 142. 



t Studies Biol. Laborat. Johns-Hopkins Univ., iii. (1885) pp. 194-216 (1 pi.). 



