PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 
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who has recently cliel (June 27) at Berlin, at a very advanced age. 
Christian Gottfried Ehienberg, Professor in the Berlin University, 
and perpetual Secretary of the Berlin Eoyal Academy of Sciences, 
was born the 17th April, 1795, at Delitzsch, in the province of 
Saxe. According to the wish of his father he had made up his 
mind to become a clergyman, but, shortly after he had been en- 
rolled as a student of theology at the University of Leipzic, he 
changed his purpose and devoted himself to the study of medicine. 
From the earliest period of his medical studies (says the ' Medical 
Examiner,' which has given a sketch of his life), he showed a strong 
predilection for microscopic investigation, and the first of his valuable 
discoveries was made shortly after he passed his " State Examination." 
He proved clearly in a paper, " De Mycetogenesi," that mould and 
low fungi arise from sperm and germ cells ; and so in his first work 
he began that opposition to the theory of the " generatio aequivoca," 
the total defeat and abolition of which have secured him a well-earned 
immortality. This grand result was obtained, after some interesting 
scientific journeys with the General von Minutoli, and afterwards 
with Alexander von Humboldt, by his work, ' The Infusoria as Perfect 
Organisms.' In this work he proved again, first, that these beings also 
arise from sperm and germ cells, and then, by his celebrated feeding 
experiments with coloured materials, that they take nourishment. 
Without entering into particulars, it is at once apparent of what 
immense value the discovery of the presence of germs everywhere — 
in air, in water, in soil — must have been in connection with the theory 
of infectious diseases ; and, indeed, it is not too much to say that all 
dogmas, questions, and theories on the subject of infection, putridity, 
bacteria, &c., take their origin from Ehrenberg's above-named book. 
Besides the above-mentioned, Ehrenberg was engaged in many very 
interesting works and investigations in different departments of 
natural history ; for his life, until the severe illness of his later years, 
was a very industrious one. Science progresses rapidly, and soon 
many of them will be forgotten or have a mere historical interest ; 
but Ehrenberg's name will always be connected with one of the most 
important scientific discoveries of the nineteenth century. 
Termination of Nerves in the Skin of Mammals. — Dr. G. Thin, ' 
writing in the ' Medical Eecord' of May 16, states that M. Mojsisovres 
(whose paper is published in the ' Sitz-bericht der K. Acad, der 
Wissen.' band Ixxi.) made his observations on the sensitive hairless 
skin which covers the central part of the snout of the swine. Nerve- 
fibrils from the papillae, or direct from the cutis, enter the rete 
Malpighii. Some of them ascend in a winding manner towards the 
surface of the epidermis, becoming smaller and varicose as they 
approach the horny layer. Some send branches downwards, which 
anastomose with those which have entered at the base between the 
papillae. The fibrils that go towards the horny layer bifurcate. They 
do not appear to anastomose. They pass between the cells, ap- 
proach very close to the horny layer, and some of them seem to end 
in club-shaped swellings, which are similar to those described by 
Cohnheim in the corneal epithelium. After maceration in a 35 per 
