*^j?uS5u'G'mS] Correlation of Microscope Physiology. 15 
a matter of immense importance to ascertain wlietlier tliey have any 
real connection with disease, and it is at once obvious that the 
question as to their origin becomes eminently essential. If these 
bodies can arise from accidental momenta, and if at the same time 
they have any connection v^ith hospital gangrene, erysipelas, or con- 
tagious fevers, we need not be surprised at the occasional insolated 
origin of such diseases, from whence they may spread in definite 
directions.* At present there is no proof whatever that different 
fevers owe their origin to different parasitic fungi, or that especial 
forms of the same common species appear constantly in the several 
forms of fever, a circumstance for which there is better evidence 
perhaps as regards certain skin diseases. It is, however, unfor- 
tunate that the writers on these subjects are seldom persons who 
are well acquainted with fungi. We may, as an instance, adduce 
the assertion in Dr. Bennett's important lecture before the College 
of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 17th January, 1868, that the genus 
Aspergillus is characterized by "capsules containing numerous 
globular seeds," a character which, to a certain extent, would apply 
to Mucor, the genus Aspergillus however bearing like Penicillium 
necklaces of spores, but seated on an ovate or globular base of rather 
complicated structure.! 
We shall wait with much interest for the complete report from 
India, which, from the intelligence of the young men engaged in 
the inquiry, will, we are sure, justify the selection which has been 
made by the Privy Council. 
lY. — On the Correlation of Microscojpic Physiology and Micro- 
sco'pic Physics. By John Browning, F.E.A.S. 
At a late meeting of the Koyal Microscopical Society I listened 
with great interest to a paper kindly written for the Society by 
Dr. Beale, on Protoplasm. 
On the physiological details in that paper I shall not attempt 
* It appears from experiments made by Mr. Hoflfman at the Marine Infirmary 
at Margate, that diseases such as Pyemia, which occasionally spread from bed to 
bed, may be insolated by the use of iodine placed under the bed and bedclothes. 
t The assertion in the same lecture, p. 24, that Mr. Busk found spores of 
TJredo segetum in choleraic dejections is incorrect. What was really found was 
spores of the common Bunt (Tilletia caries). The spores of the Uredo, or rather 
XJstilago, are all blown away by the wind long before the seed is ripe, and never 
accompany the grain into the miller's hopper. 
I may take this opportunity of calHng attention to the fact, which is not gene- 
rally recognized, that Homer was perfectly aware of the origin of the larvae which 
appear in putrefying carcasses. See * Iliad,' xix., v. 23, where he says that flies 
generate the worms. 
