Occurrence of Bacteria (Bacilli) in Living Plants. 71 



by some foreign observers, Have any investigators in England 

 observed, or encountered, the same objects ? 



To this day, so far as I have been able to ascertain, no 

 further information has been accorded, save that bacilli have 

 been noticed in the tissues of decaying or dying plants in a 

 moist condition, leading us to suppose that these organisms 

 may be direct promoters of the decay of such vegetals. 



The interesting part of my communication Ties in this : 

 tha,t living bacilli can be shown in the living cells of what 

 appears to be a healthy vallisneria, and I have also found 

 them in the cells of another water-weed — i.e., Anacharis 

 alsinastrum. 



As far as I have been able to ascertain, these organisms 

 (bacilli) can be readily detected in the square cells of the 

 surface of the leaf, intermixed with chlorophyl grains, but 

 soon gravitating to the lower portion of each cell. They 

 appear to be confined to these superficial cells, and are with 

 difficulty to be traced in the deeper-seated larger ones of the 

 plant. On two occasions I have distinctly seen a bacillus 

 occupying the central portion of a large cell in which cyclosis 

 was going on. On account of the greater density of the 

 protoplasm moving along the walls of the cell, I suppose the 

 bacillus could not enter the current, the lesser specific gravity 

 of this organism preventing it occupying any portion of the 

 stream which was of greater density than itself, hence its 

 steady continuance in the central or calm region . of the 

 cyclosis. 



Now come questions: — What relation do these bacilli bear 

 to the host, or plant, in which they are found ? Are they 

 vegetals, living in commensalism with it ? Are these 

 organisms vegetal or animal in their life character ? Do 

 they await the dissolution of the cell contents in order to 

 complete further destructive changes ? Or do they conduce 

 to the fermentative or zymotic change of the chlorophyl 

 and starch grains occupying the cells in which they are found? 



These are not useless questions to be asked ; and, if solved, 

 possibly their solution may tend to explain or set at rest 

 some of the vexed and disputed points which have presented 

 themselves regarding disease germ-cells and their presence in 

 the animal economy. 



Although bacteria and bacilli have been familiar to me 

 for some fourteen years, and I have noticed them in animal 

 tissues undergoing decomposition — in the blood of man, in 

 the blood of puerperal cases (certainly, only at times of ill- 



