ti Supposed Cholera Fungus. [^j^irlliJSrSt 
obtain the same result, and if this corresponds with what is exhi- 
bited by rougher experiments, we shall be pretty certain that we 
have indeed arrived at the true nature of the yeast plant. 
What is really wanted at present is to trace accurately the 
development of those obscure bodies which are the first signs of 
vegetable hfe in infusions or in substances in an early stage of decom- 
position. No one seems to know exactly what the little variously- 
coloured gelatinous bodies are which occur in paste and other moist 
vegetable substances, and amongst them the so-called blood-rain ; 
and the same may be said of what are variously called Bacteria, 
Vibrios, or Leptothrix, and which come in close succession to the 
monads. The investigation is certainly one of great, but perhaps 
not insurmountable difficulty, and might be carried on in closed 
cells containing a drop of some suitable fluid surrounded with air. 
When examined en masse, it is almost impossible to say with any 
certainty that one form is derived from the other, however probable 
it may be that this is actually the case. 
Our young commissioners were very properly placed in com- 
munication with Professor Huxley, who has paid especial attention 
to this interesting matter. When we had an opportunity of exa- 
mining his preparations, it must be confessed, under very unfavour- 
able circumstances as regards illumination, we saw sufficient to hope 
that he would continue his investigations, and we think that he has 
exercised a very wise discretion in not publishing his observations 
too hastily.* We have long thought that the subject is one of the 
highest importance as regards many sanitary questions, and, if 
thoroughly worked out without the slightest tendency to draw con- 
clusions in any especial direction, we feel confident that much good 
would be accomplished. 
The preparations which were given by Dr. Hallier as to the 
connection of fungi with scarlet fever, &c., which we had an oppor- 
tunity of examining, proved absolutely nothing, as far as we could 
see ; and as regards the emanation of fungous spores from drains 
or other localities containing putrefying matter, which we are not 
inchned for a moment to deny, we should require some tangible 
proof before we arrive at the conclusion that they have anything to 
do with disease. 
It would be mere folly to blind the eyes to the experiments of 
Pouchet, Child, Bennett, and others, as to what is called the Atmo- 
spheric Germ theory; but, whatever may be the origin of the 
minute bodies in question, whether from pre-existent spores or 
the fortuitous concourse of chemical and other energetic forces, it is 
* The cell-forms observed by Kainey and others in various viscous substances 
prove but very little, unless it (fould be shown that they were real cells with a 
wall composed of cellulose, and nitrogenous contents. That cells may originate in 
organizable matter is clear from the mode in which spores are formed in the asci 
of ascigerous fungi. 
