NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
353 
which condenses into spores which divide and germinate. Moreover, 
there are also moving filaments, and finely granular spheres, while 
the resemblance to B. rubescens is even more striking. That the 
deeply coloured spherules, figured by Lankester in the filaments and 
capsules, and described as “ loculi,” as well as the so-called “ sulphur- 
granules ” of Cohn,* correspond to the “ spores ” of the authors is 
extremely probable, although their germination has not yet been 
observed.! 
On this paper Professor Ray Lankester writes “ I have no 
doubt from their description and from observation of the same growth 
that the organism present was identical with my Bacterium rubescens. 
During the phase in which they observed it the production of Spirillum- 
forms was exceedingly active. The Spnillum-iorm observed by Ewart 
and Geddes and the filaments related to it appear to be identical with 
those described and figured by Warming.§ Professor Giard, of Lille, 
has also figured the same Spirillum-iorm of Bacterium rubescens in the 
‘ Revue des Sciences Naturelles,’ tom. v., 1877. I do not feel satisfied 
from the account given by Ewart and Geddes that the bodies which I 
have called ‘ loculi ’ and which they term ‘ spores ’ have any charac- 
ters which justify the use of the latter term in regard to them. They 
do not appear to be the same kind of bodies in origin as the so-called 
‘ spores ’ discovered by Cohn in Bacillus, and it is not at all certain 
that they germinate, as Ewart and Geddes have inferred, though their 
observations lend a certain amount of jDrobability to that suggestion.” 
Observation of Live Aquatic Animals . — The microscopical study of 
live aquatic animals is often very tedious and unsatisfactory on 
account of their almost constant motion. This may be very effectually 
overcome by adding a small quantity of sulphuric ether to the water 
in which they are kept. Ether is a very excellent quieting agent, as 
it mixes quite readily with water, it does not sensibly affect the cir- 
culation, and the animals are as lively as ever soon after being put 
back into fresh water. || 
Unit of Micrometry . — The resolutions of the Indianaj^olis Micro- 
scopical Congress, which are printed at p. 254, were considered at a 
recent meeting of the New York Microscopical Society, who resolved 
to approve of the first one, viz. the recommendation of the of a 
millimetre as the unit. After some discussion the other resolutions 
were “ laid on the table.” 
The proposed Micro-Metric Unit . — These resolutions evidently do 
not find favour with the editor of the ‘American Journal of Micro- 
scopy,’ who somewhat severely criticizes them in an article under the 
above heading in the October number, and from which we make the 
following extracts : — 
That the metric system will ultimately be the one universally 
* ‘ Beitrage zur Biol. d. Pfl.,’ 3, 1875. 
t ‘Proc. Roy. Soc.,’ vol. xxvii. p. 481. 
X ‘ Quar. Jour. Mic. Sc.,’ October, 1878. 
§ ‘ Observations sur quelques Bacteries qui se rewcontrent sur les cotes du 
Danemark.’ Societe' d’Hist. Nat. de Copenhague, 1875. 
j| Mr. Gage, in ‘American Quarterly Microscopical Journal,’ vol. i. p. 71. 
