ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 789 



pyriform expansion a spherical highly - refracting spore is formed. 

 Sometimes the parental membrane is dissolved, sometimes it is retained, 

 and invests the spore even for months. Placed in fresh nutrient solution, 

 the spores present appearances similar to those of Merista urese, they 

 become pallid, larger in one direction, and divide by fission. During 

 the act of germination no separation of a membrane is observable. 

 Dried on a cover-glass, the spores are seen to be highly refracting, and 

 surrounded by a double outline, the outer contour being thick and 

 black, the inner one fine and thin. In their resistance to high tempera- 

 tures they closely resemble the spores of Merista ureae. This con- 

 sonance in structure, germination, and general characteristics, shows that 

 no difference exists between spores of faecal bacteria and of urinary 

 ferment — in other words, the latter develope endogenously. 



The author concludes by pointing out that where spore-formation 

 can be controlled throughout its whole course, only one form of fructifica- 

 tion has been observed, namely the endogenous. The cases of arthro- 

 sporous fructification only refer to bacteria wherein, on account of their 

 smallness, or the special form of the vegetative or fructifying cells, it was 

 impossible to follow the processes throughout their course. 



New Marine Bacterium.* — M. A. Billet has observed in sea-water 

 a new Bacterium, to which he has given the name of B. Laminarise ; and 

 describes its life-history and its morphological variations. In the fila- 

 mentous or initial stage it consists of colotu'less, immobile filaments, 

 which appear to consist at first of homogeneous and uninterrupted 

 protoplasm ; later, however, fine transverse strife can be detected. The 

 protoplasm then commences to segment, the separate portions being 

 divided by more or less pronounced intervals, and the filamentous 

 sheath can be distinguished. The second or dissociated stage is thus 

 reached. The third stage is characterized by a peculiar disposition 

 which affects the filaments of the initial stage, these latter interlacing 

 one with another and extending and forming variable groups, which 

 finish by spreading like a veil on the surface of the liquid. The fourth 

 stage is characterized by the formation of the zoogloeie, which are 

 aggregates of bacterian elements, and are enveloped in a common 

 gelatinous matrix. The author has only been able to study imperfectly 

 the formation of the spores. On the surface of certain filaments roundish 

 corpuscles with a thick membrane were noticed; these were probably 

 the endospores. 



New and Typical Micro-organisms from Water and Soil.f — In 

 their paper on Micro-organisms obtained from soil and water, the authors, 

 Mrs. Grace C. Fraukland and Dr. Percy F. Frankland, point out the 

 striking difference between the aerial and aquatic micro-organisms, 

 micrococci being predominant forms amongst the former, whilst bacillar 

 forms are almost exclusively present in water. In fact, all the aquatic 

 forms described are bacilli. 



"With regard to the chemical action which these micro-organisms 

 exert upon certain solutions containing salts of ammonia and of nitric acid, 

 it was found that while none of the forms were found to oxidize ammonia, 

 either to nitrous or nitric acid, several of them exerted a powerfully 

 reducing action on nitrates, converting the latter into nitrites; others 



* Comptes Rendus, cvi. (1888) pp. 293^5. 

 t Proc. R. Soc. Lond., xliii. (1888) pp. 414-8. 

 1888. 3 H 



