140 Observations on Mucor Mucedo. [^SaiJe^tTiS? 
though apparent, in the young animals -ruth, of an inch long, with 
their discs developed : in the adult I have not, in this species, been 
able to resolve the eye ; and this constant occurrence of the eye- 
spot, so distinct in the young and ova, and so difficult to resolve in 
the adult, when they have been seen in the lower forms, while they 
are always visible in the higher, suggests the solution that is here 
offered with much diffidence, and must be received as conjecture, 
requiring confirmation. 
It is opposed to the plan of nature that any organized body 
should in any degree degenerate* from the infant to the adult stage ; 
if, therefore, the eye-spots are present in the young Eotifers, and 
apparently absent, or, at all events, difficult to resolve in the adult, 
the reasonable inference is, that the eye has developed and not 
degraded, — developed as a simple eye of a low type in the form 
of a lens, which, as a high refracting body, requires, of course, 
careful manipulation to determine with any class of illumination. 
In the lower forms it has been found that while any particle of 
colouring matter remains no appearance of a lens is visible. 
Then, with regard to the higher forms, though the colouring 
matter is always present, it is changed perceptibly in character in 
the adult stage, leading to the conclusion that these possess a low 
form of compound eye ; that the vanishing colouring matter of the 
simple eye is of a different character and composition to the perma- 
nent pigment of the compound ; and that in both cases the animals 
are blind in infancy. 
While, therefore, some of us are spending much time in resolv- 
ing and discussing the markings on Diatomacese and Podura scales, 
I would invite the attention of observers to turn their attention to 
the investigation of some of these doubtful points in the economy 
of the higher Infusoria, a field of inquiry inexhaustible in interest. 
III. — Observations on Mucor Mucedo. 
By K. L. Mapdox, M.D. 
The following remarks on Mucor Mucedo, occurring in a bruised 
ripe cherry, may at least add to the interest which invests these 
humble and prevalent structures, even if they do not exactly con- 
firm the observations of others. 
Among the Physomycetous Order of Fungi, we find Anten- 
nariei and Mucorini, the latter described in the Micrographic Dic- 
tionary as having a "Mycelium filamentous, vague, giving off 
erect simple or branched filaments terminating in vesicular cells 
* We must object to tlii.-j sweeping proposition, which is clearly the result of 
imperfect acquaintance with the facts of metamorphosis. — Ed. M. M. J. 
