98 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



short, but often branclied threads of protoplasm. Two of these cells 

 appear to conjugate (though it would seem as if the act of conjugation 

 has not been actually observed), the protoplasm passing from one into 

 the other, which swells up greatly, being filled with protoplasm and 

 drops of oil, and invested with a firm coat. The two conjugating cells 

 place themselves one on the top of the other, and an open tubular 

 communication is formed between them. The process presents the 

 greatest resemblance to the formation of the spiny spores of Chytri- 

 diacese. Physoderma appears to be an intermediate form between the 

 Chytridiacese and Pytliium and the Peronosporese ; and may also be 

 related on the other hand to Gladochytrium, 



Bacilli of Tubercle.* — According to Prof. Eindfleiseh, tubercular 

 bacilli are best stained by fuchsin soluble in alcohol, but not in 

 water. Two or three drops of a concentrated solution in 2-3 cm. of 

 anilin-oil water are sufficient. The staining is especially good at 

 40° C. The bacilli are uniformly stained if a few drops of fuchsin 

 are added to a mixture of equal parts of alcohol, water, and nitric 

 acid. 



Microbia of Marine Fish.f — In pursuance of their researches on 

 this subject, L. Olivier and C. Eichet have ascertained beyond doubt 

 the spontaneous motility of the microbes obtained from living fish, 

 as distinguished from mere passive or brownian movements. Motile 

 organisms were found in living specimens of Gadus luseus, which had 

 been only twenty-four hours in an aquarium, in the cephalo-rachidean 

 and peritoneal fluids ; in the peritoneal fluid of a Blennius ; in the 

 blood of the heart of Gadus luseus, and in the peritoneal fluid of a 

 whiting. 



The absence of putrefaction in the lymph or blood of a fish does 

 not prove the absence of living microbes ; some of the examples 

 named above remained for months without alteration. A good 

 nutrient fluid for their culture was found to be infusion of beef. The 

 cephalo-rachidian fluid of a mud-fish was mixed with sterilized infusion 

 of beef in one part of an exhausted tube. After three months no 

 clouding appeared in it, but at the bottom was a minute whitish 

 deposit. This contained mobile, short, flexuous bacilli, which were 

 stained by methyl-violet. 



Physiology and Morphology of Alcoholic Ferments.^ — C. E. 

 Hansen describes the mode of formation of the ascospores of Sac- 

 charomyces, his description of which differs in several points from that 

 of previous observers, especially Engel and Brefeld. He also con- 

 tests van Tieghem's view that the formation of ascospores is a patho- 

 logical phenomenon due to bacteria. He gives a detailed description 



* SB. Fhys.-med. Gesell. Wtirzburg, 1882. See Bot. Centralbl, xvi. (1883) 

 p. 18. 



t Comptes Rendus, xcvii. (1883). Of. this Journal, iii. (1883) pp. 402, 

 884. 



X Meddel. Oarlsberg Lab., ii. (1883) 3 pis. (Danish with French resume). See 

 Bot. Centralbl., xv. (1883) p. 257. Of. this Journal, ii. (1882) p. 234 ; iii. (1883) 

 p. 232. 



