■^5. 



appearance » 



my obser 



$ 



satisfactorj, 1 

 is really a livii;' 

 d by Prof, 



ing from 



been discoveiti 



lus observers, ii 



from the «■ 



1 if such nests as ;^ 

 . the fact can t^'- 

 'on the et*; 

 there is no S"'- • 

 ,er is denied 'i'^: 





•e 



77/£' BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



287 



Wm.J 



Mr 



r 



and in a few other habitats^ It is believed by the 

 Rev. M. J. Berkeley to be some unusual form of one of 

 our common moulds^ though great obscurity is acknow- 

 ledged to prevail on this subject, and nothing is cer- 

 tainly known concerning its subsequent morphological 



Fig. 21. 

 Sarcina, from an Amnionic Tartrate and Sodic Phosphate Solution. 



condition, or from what organism it has been derived, 

 Mr. Berkeley says^, ^ Every attempt to make it ger- 

 minate and produce its proper fruit has at present 

 failed.' * I have met with it several times in closed 

 flasks containing ammonic tartrate and sodic phosphate, 

 though not in other saline solutions with which I 

 have experimented. It appears to be always produced 

 in slightly acid fluids, and it seems very probable that 



^ For further particulars on this subject, see Dr. Tilbury Fox's ' Skin 

 Diseases of Parasitic Origin,' pp. 152-163. M, Pasteur ('Ann.de Chim. 

 et de Phys./ 1862, PL 11, fig, 27, k, and p. So) has figured and 

 alludes to an * Algue formee de cellules quaternaires, deposee sous 

 forme de precipitate,' upon the walls of a flask which had contained 

 'I'eau de levfire non sucree,' and which, if not Sarcina, must be very 

 closely allied thereto. 



^ ' British Fungology/ i860, p. 69. 



