RECENT RESEARCHES IN MINUTE LIFE. 
253 
the most probable way of accounting for the phenomena of 
heredity, and we need not be scared from it on account of the 
extreme minuteness that must be assigned to the representative 
particles of which germs must be composed. M. Bechamp has 
recently stated that the microferments he discovers in eggs are 
so small that eight thousand millions would be required to fill 
the space of a cubic 1-2 5th of an inch. The sporules not visible 
as single bodies in the Ballinger and Brysdale observations 
under a magnification of 5,000 diameters must be still more 
minute, and yet they must be composed of parts, and contain 
that variety of matter which appears essential to germinating 
action. When a microscope just enables us to see very small 
bodies as distinctly separable from each other or from the fluid 
in which they may be found, their real size cannot be nearly as 
great as their apparent size. Most objectives would far more 
than double their diameters by optical errors, and if the best 
added only a hundred-thousandth of an inch, that would be a 
very important enlargement ; so that in speaking of the actual 
dimensions of the smallest germs known we must use figures 
that transcend our conceptions of dimensions as much as those 
employed by astronomers do when they talk of billions, trillions, 
and other unimaginable mile-distances in the realms of space. 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES CXXIII. AND CXXIV. 
The figures in these plates are copied from the illustrations to the 
researches of Mr. Dallinger and Dr. Drysdale. u Monthly Microscopical 
Journal/’ 1873-4. 
Fig-. 1. Biflagellate Monad. 
Fig. 2. Two that have become amoeboid in process of conjunction. 
Fig. 3. Monad that anchors with one flagellum. 
Fig. 4. The same in process of fission. 
Fig. 5. The same in vertical fission. 
Fig. 6. A globular form which elongated and divided into two Monads. 
Monads thus formed enter into conjunction with the preceding, 
and coalesce in the shape of fig. 7. 
Fig. 7. Triangular form resulting from coalescence, as above. 
Fig. 8. Hooked Monads about to coalesce. 
Fig. 9. Spherical form, resulting from the coalescence, segmenting. 
Fig. 10. Uniflagellate Monad. 
Fig. 11. The above, after having rounded itself in an advanced stage 
towards multiple fission. 
Fig. 12. A multiple fission Monad. 
Fig. 13. The same in fission. 
Fig. 14. Calycine Monad. 
Fig. 15. Two of the above in conjunction after becoming partly amoeboid. 
