51 
as to whether fermentation is produced b)’ tlie yeast plant, or the 
yeast plant the result of fermentation. Torula may possibly be 
oidy one of the phases assumed by the simple cell. The hetero- 
genists have succeeded in producing the forms known as Torula 
Leptothrix and Bacteria ■ but passing by the question as to the 
truth, or otherwise, of heterogeny, we will avail ourselves of the 
facts they have accuinulated. 
The earliest .stage of Torula is that of a minute spore, or conidium 
averaging about the 7000th of an inch in diameter, (the diameter 
of the human blood disc is a 3200th of an inch, about double the 
size of torula spores.) It would recpiire 49,000,000 of torula 
spores to cover a space equal to a scpiare inch ; or if one spore is 
magnified 400 diameters, it would appear about the of an inch 
in size, an inch enlarged to the same extent would be equal to 
eleven yards. The .spore consists of a membranous sac, containing 
a soft homogeneous fluid mass, which is protoplasm ; this pro- 
topla.smic ma.ss is composed of nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, and 
hydrogen. When a spore comes in contact wdth any nitrogenous 
matter, it begins to develope, and in the coui-se of a few hours 
fermentation has set in, and a series of bead-like filaments may 
be seen ; these have been produced by the adhesion of the new 
formed cells to the parent cell. This cohesion only continues 
during fermentation j when that ceases, the cells separate, and 
cell division stops. Professor Huxley states in a paper read in 
section D of the British Association last session, that from conidia 
are developed Torula and Bacteria, and these are further de- 
veloped into Penicdlum or mould. 
Many of the algm may be obtained from every wayside ditch, 
and if attentively examined, will be found to consist of a congeries 
of simple cells, sometimes placed side by side, and forming leaf- 
like expansions, or united in a single series, forming the thread-like 
filaments, so common in aquaria as to be considered a pest. The 
rapidity of growth in the algse is very remarkable ; little puddles 
of water formed by the rain in a few hours are filled with confer- 
void growths ; a damp surface is frequently all that is necessary to 
produce an abundant crop. If a small portion, about the size of a 
pin’s head, of OsciUatoria Umosn, the black slime so common on 
damp surfaces, be placed in a white saucer with a little water, and 
exposed to the light, in the course of an hour or two filaments half 
E 2 
