350 
NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
6 mm. ; this, it will be remembered, under a magnifying power of 
200 diameters. Growth during the remainder of the day averages 
considerably less ; but judging from the appearance of the plant at 
eight o’clock the next morning, I think the growth had taken place as 
rapidly as when the first measurements were taken. The branches 
shown were given off at 10.7 and 10.42 o’clock, and averaged 
7 • 8 mm. per five minutes. The time required for a plant to develop 
fruit from the zoospore, varies greatly with varying conditions. A 
mat of mycelium, from which the specimen was taken, developed fruit 
in four days, but this time was rather long when compared with other 
observations made on the same germs, considering that the mycelium 
was already well developed. In one case, zoospores were placed upon 
a slide with a small fragment of a fly ; the first sporangium opened in 
about thirty hours, and the second one on the same filament eight 
hours later.” * 
Life-History of Bacterium termo and Micrococcus. — Dr. J. Cossar 
Ewart has communicated a paper to the Eoyal Society, from which 
the following is extracted : — “ While recently studying the phases 
through which Bacillus antliracis passes, my attention was often 
directed to still more familiar organisms, Bacterium termo and Micro- 
coccus. Frequently from cultivations of Bacillus, both rods, spores, 
and filaments disappeared, and in their place millions of Micrococci 
and the short jointed rods of B. termo were found. | In the short 
rods of B. termo, which in the struggle for existence overcame the 
less active Bacilli, minute bright particles were often present. These 
exactly resembled the Micrococci in the field around and between 
them, and were evidently the remains of spores out of which the rods 
had just been developed. The presence of Micrococcus-YiVe spores in 
the short rods led me to conclude not only that B. termo had a life- 
history similar to that of Bacillus antliracis, but also that Billroth was 
probably right in believing that Micrococci were the spores of ordi- 
nary Bacteria. . . . Before attempting to compare the life-history of 
B. tei'mo with what we know of the life-history of Bacillus antliracis, 
it was necessary to have B. termo isolated from all other organisms. 
After many failures, I was fortunate enough to find a cultivation in 
which the rods of B. termo were alone visible. After keeping this 
cultivation under observation for some time, others were made by 
infecting fresh drops of humor aqueus previously placed on absolutely 
clean covering glasses with as small a drop of the liquid as possible 
on the point of a needle. The covering glasses were inverted over 
cells made by fixing glass rings to ordinary slides by means of 
Brunswick black, the cells having been carefully washed immediately 
before using with absolute alcohol. A thin layer of olive oil be- 
tween the edge of the glass ring and the covering glass prevented 
evaporation, and the entrance of moisture and solid particles from 
the surrounding atmosphere. 
* ‘ American Quarterly Microscopical Journal,’ vol. i, p. 18. 
t This (lisappoamnce of the one and appearance of the others accounts for 
ejuly investigators believing that there was a continuity of development between 
Bacilli and septic organisms. 
