ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
67 
48°-68°, its optimum temperature being 57°. It grows well on all the 
ordinary solid and liquid media. Macroscopically the cultures do not 
differ in the least from those of ordinary Actinomyces. Microscopically 
these cultures show filaments of variable length, which are spiral and 
much branched. Some bear spores at their ends. The fungus liquefies 
gelatin, coagulates milk, imparting thereto an acid reaction ; it does not 
form a diastatic ferment, and is not pathogenic to laboratory animals. 
The second species was isolated from manure. The filaments and 
spores are much larger than those of the first species, and it does not 
liquefy gelatin. In other respects it closely resembles Thermoactino- 
myces i. 
Besides the two foregoing species, the author describes a fungus 
much higher in the scale of organisation than any thermophilous microbe 
yet described. From its organs of fructification it appears to be related 
to the Mucorineae. This fungus presents a downy mycele, and under the 
Microscope sporanges at the ends of ramified mycelial filaments are easily 
discernible. It is easily stained by the ordinary anilin pigments and 
by Gram’s method. It grows well on the ordinary media, but best on 
white bread. It liquefies gelatin and secretes a proteolytic ferment. 
It produces invertin and coagulates milk. Its optimum temperature 
lies between 53° and 65°; it is incultivable at 37°, and at 48° its 
growth is only feeble. It forms spores on solid substrata in 2-3 days, 
but not at all in liquid media. 
Protophyta. 
a. Schizopliyceee. 
Stipitococcus, a New Genus of Frotococcaceae.* — Messrs. W. and 
G. S. West describe, along with a number of new species of Algm, a new 
genus with the following diagnosis : — Cellulse epiphyticse, gregarias, 
minutse, stipite hyalino tenuissimo longo aftixse, base subrotundata, apice 
saepe apiculato, nonnunquam producto, deinde irregulariter expanso, a 
vertice visas circulares ; contentus cellularum late viridis, chromato- 
phora singula parietali curvata et irregulari, plasma granulosa ; propa- 
gatio ignota. Stipitococcus urceolatus sp. n., is epiphytic on a Mougeotia ; 
the very slender hyaline stem has possibly been formed from the single 
cilium of a zoospore. 
£. Schizomycetes. 
Action of Bacteria on the Photographic Film.f — Prof. P. Frank- 
land records four sets of experiments which had for their object to ascer- 
tain whether living structures may not be endowed with the power of 
recording their presence on the sensitive film. From these preliminary 
experiments the author infers that bacterial cultures are capable of 
affecting the photographic film, even at a distance of half an inch ; 
whilst when placed in contact with the film, definite pictures of bacterial 
growths can be obtained. As the action does not take place through 
glass, it is in all probability due to the evolution of volatile chemical 
substances which either directly or indirectly enter into reaction with 
* Journ. of Bot., xxxvi. (1898) p. 336. 
t Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxiv. (1898) pp. 609-12. 
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