ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
491 
marsh near Cambridge, Mass. In the motile condition it consists 
of a swarm-cell about 8-10 /x long and 5-6 /x broad, with two unequal 
cilia at one end. It contains six to ten peripheral disc-shaped bodies 
which are apparently true chromatophores, and one or two bright red 
pigment-spots. It occurs also in a non-motile condition, which is 
possibly identical with Polycystis pallida. In this state the cells 
contain blue-green chromatophores, one, two, or rarely three pigment- 
spots, and a •well-defined nucleus with a distinct nucleole. 
Influence of Light and of Altitude on the Striation of Diatoms.* — 
M. J. Heribaud has examined a number of diatoms belonging to the 
genera Gomphonema , Navicula, Stauroneis , and Synedra , attached to 
Isoetes obtained from a depth of 10-12 m., and from Characese at a 
depth of 15 m., in a lake in Auvergne. Contrasted with the same 
species growing on the borders of the lake, he finds the frustule to be 
generally longer and broader, and the number of striae to be diminished 
by the comparative feebleness of the light. In diatoms of the same 
genera obtained from an altitude of 1830 m., the striae were also less 
numerous and less strongly marked. 
j3. Schizomycetes. 
The State and Modern Bacteriological Research.-]- — Prof. 0. Babes 
gave an important address to the International Medical Congress at 
Rome on this subject. Considering the organization of hygiene as 
being of the greatest importance for the happiness of citizens, he thinks 
that there should be a richly-endowed Institute of State Hygiene, in 
which laboratory work may be turned to practical use ; the position of 
the sanitary officials should be raised, and all the strength of the depart- 
ment used to fill up lacunae in professional knowledge. Our enlarged 
experience will justify us in increasing the sphere of state work, which 
is bound to interfere more largely in the freedom of individual life* 
because modern research tells us that this is in favour of the sanitary 
development of the community. 
Morphology of Bacteria.^ — Hr. E. Klein concludes from observa- 
tions on the bacilli of anthrax, diphtheria, and tubercle, that these species 
are not such typical bacilli as they are usually represented to be. For 
though under many conditions their morphological characters are those 
of typical bacilli, yet under others they revert to or assume forms 
indicating their relationship to Saccharomyces or a still higher mycelial 
fungus. In the case of anthrax, the typical bacilli may be represented 
by oval and spherical bodies, some of which may contain vacuoles, and 
under other conditions (early stages of growth on plates composed of 
beef bouillon, gelatin 10 per cent., pepton 1 per cent., salt 1 per cent.), 
the colotiies are -composed of large spindle-shaped, spherical or oval 
elements in which vacuolation is frequent. Similar appearances are to 
be observed in colonies of the thrush fungus. From this it is inferred 
that while B. antJiracis is a typical bacillus as a pathogenic microbe, yet 
in its early stages of growth on gelatin it may assume characters having 
much resemblance to Saccharomyces mycoderma or Oidium, and thus 
* Comptes Eendus, cxviii. (1894) pp. 82-4. 
t Nature, xlix. (1894) pp. 565-7. 
% Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., xxxvi. (1894) pp. 1-9 (1 pi.). 
