156 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Structure of Cyanophycese and Bacteria. * * * § — While agreeing with 
many of Biitsckli’s conclusions, especially with his pronouncement of 
the honeycomb structure of protoplasm and of the cell-wall, Herr H. 
Zukal dissents from his view as to the nature of the “ central body ” in 
the Cyanophycese and Bacteria, which he maintains to have no relation 
to the true nucleus in higher plants. He points out that the protoplasm 
has naturally a denser consistency in the smallest organisms. From his 
observations of the phenomena in Fungi, he has convinced himself that 
the nucleus has been gradually developed from microsomes by differen- 
tiation and specialisation. 
Oscillatoria rubescens.f — Prof. R. Chodat has studied in detail the 
structure of this rare organism, which appears occasionally (in warm sea- 
sons) on the surface of Lake Morat, in Switzerland, in such quantities as 
to impart a pink colour to the water. The protoplasm contains a number 
of corpuscles, similar to those which have been taken for sulphur in 
other Algae ; they are, however, vacuoles filled with a gas. The pig- 
ment is not in a state of solution, but is intimately associated with the 
protoplasm, filling up the vacuoles ; although nearly invisible under the 
Microscope, it can readily be detected by the spectroscope. It appears 
to be identical with Sorby’s cc pink phycocyanin,” and Chodat proposes 
for it the term myxojporphyrin. The vacuoles have a remarkably re- 
sistant membrane. 
13 . Schizomycetes. 
Effect of Rontgen Rays on Bacteria.^ — Hr. J. Wittlin exposed 
several kinds of pathogenic bacteria to the influence of the Rontgen 
rays for a full hour, and found, from bacteriological examination, that 
the action of these was nil. Exposure of the medium before inoculation 
to the rays was also without influence. 
Loose Combination of Oxygen in certain Bacteria.§ — Prof. W. 
Pfeffer remarks that, as a rule, plant-cells do not store up oxygen in a 
loose combination, so that the streaming of the protoplasm very soon 
ceases when oxygen is absent. The author has made the theoretically 
important discovery that there are both coloured and colourless bacteria 
which, after the manner of haemoglobin, are able to pick up a consider- 
able quantity of oxygen, retaining it, however, in loose combination ; and 
that they are able to gradually give up this oxygen when they are 
confined in places devoid of it. Bacterium termo was used as a test of 
the presence of oxygen. B. termo was placed in a hanging drop in a gas 
chamber, on the floor of which the organism to be examined was put. 
Hydrogen was then passed through until B. termo stopped moving. 
When the organism gave off oxygen, B. termo began to move again. It 
was found that oxygen could be given off for twelve hours. The presence 
of C0 2 and the volume of oxygen were also determined in the course of 
these experiments. From the fact that these ^bacteria, even when dead, 
will form a combination with oxygen, it would seem possible that the 
* Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xiv. (1896) pp. 331-9. Cf. this Journal, 1896, 
p. 662. f Journ. de Bot. (Morot), x. (1896) pp. 341-9, 405-9 (1 pi. and 1 fig.). " 
% Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., 2 te Abt., ii. (1896) pp. 676-7. 
§ K. Sachs. Gesell. Wiss. Leipzig, July 1896, 5 pp. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. 
u. Parasitenk., 2 te Abt , ii. (1896) pp. 763-4. 
