214 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
a watery, almost colourless fluid, in wliich were from two to five large 
refringent colourless granules, scarcely stained by hsematoxylin. These 
assumed after a time a swarming motion, and finally escaped through an 
opening in the cell-wall. Their movement then became more energetic, 
and they were seen to have a contractile membrane of protoplasm, but no 
cilia, and were enveloped in a very thin gelatinous layer. They were 
spherical or ellipsoidal, with a diameter of from 1 to 3*5 /a. When 
they came to rest they became clothed with a firm membrane. These 
‘•zoospores” then became united into diplozoospores, each pair con- 
sisting of a larger and a smaller one, and began to assume a blue-green 
tint. Each of the two cells now increased to a diameter of 5-6 //,, and 
repeatedly divided so that a small colony was formed, enclosed in muci- 
lage, and precisely resembling a colony of Gloeocapsa or Aplianocapsa, 
the separate cells still having a slight swarming motion. The meta- 
morphosis of this colony into the Cylindrospermum condition was not 
observed. The author has also seen a similar formation of “ zoospores ” 
in G omphospheeria aporina, GloeotricTiia pisum, and a species of Oscillatoria. 
A new species of Lyngbya, L. Bornetii, is described, in which the 
chromatophore has a reticulate framework. 
Lyngbya Borziana.* — Sig. L. Macchiati has come to the conclusion 
that the organism described by him under this name is a stage in the 
cycle of development of Phormidium Betzii. This latter is transformed 
into the Lyngbya-fovm when growing in still or very slowly running 
water. The branching species of Phormidium , P. Betzii and penicilla- 
tum are grouped by the author into a sub-genus Dendro -phormidium or 
Kladodo-phormidium. 
j8. Schizomycetes. 
Third Report of the Royal Society Water Research Committee, j— 
The third report of Profs. P. F. Frankland and H. Marshall Ward com- 
mences with an account of Prof. Ward’s further experiments on the 
action of light on Bacillus anthracis and on the bacteria of the Thames. 
He strongly urges that an attempt should be made to thoroughly investi- 
gate the bacteriology of the Thames. One point of great interest in this 
elaborate report is the discovery of very distinct evidence that the 
bacteria in summer water are many of them enfeebled forms. In some 
cases those obtained in August, which turned out to be identical with 
forms found in the winter, at first grew so feebly that their characters 
on the plates led one to put them down as distinct species or varieties. 
The matter is very complex ; but in one or two cases at any rate, there 
is no question that exposure to light does so affect the germination and 
growth of the bacteria that the resulting colonies depart widely from the 
normal in many of their characters. 
The second part of the paper treats of the behaviour of the typhoid- 
bacillus and of B. coli communis ; in this research Prof. Frankland was 
assisted by Mr. Appleyard. A large number of experiments have been 
made. In one series the vitality of one and the same culture of the 
typhoid bacillus was observed in one and the same sample of Thames 
water (A) in its natural unsterilized state ; (B) sterilized by steam ; 
* Bull. Soc. Bot. I tal., 1894, pp. 296-9. Cf. this Journal, 1S90, p. 65L > 
t Proc. Roy. Soc., lvi. (1894) pp. 3JA-556. 
