422 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
towards the stipe. It is thus completely gymuocarpic. A “ conducting 
system ” was found, running through the stipe and lower portion of the 
pileus into the laminae. 
A Plankton-Fungus.* * * § —In plankton-gatherings from the neighbour- 
hood of Plon and elsewhere, Dr. 0. Zaoharias finds abundance of an 
organism readily mistaken for the diatom Atheya Zachariasi , hut in 
reality a fungus, which has been identified as Cncurbitaria aqueductum. 
Marine Microscopic Vegetable Organisms.t — Mr. W. H. Harris 
describes a group of marine microscopic vegetable organisms which he 
finds attached to the calcareous remains of Foraminifera in dredging& 
from various parts of the world ; they occur also in calcareous spicules 
and particles of Polyzoa, and in the spines of Echinoderms. Sometimes 
the superficial layers of one or both sides of the shell are alone infested ; 
in others they penetrate to a considerable depth, or may actually per- 
forate the shell. They are referred to the genera Lacuna and Achlya. 
Ray Fungi.J — Ray fungi, says Herr V. Lnchner-Sandoval, have 
always been classed among the bacteria, and the true branching exhibited 
by them has been erroneously described as pseudodichotomy. Accord- 
ing to the author, these fungi consist of a simple or ramified unicellular 
mycele, and multiply by acrogenous separation of conid chains or by 
filament fragments. Ray fungi therefore are not bacteria, but Hyplio- 
mycetes. All known species of ray fungi are placed by the author in 
the genus Actinomyces In all 29 species are alluded to and their 
synonyms given. Some of these species have hitherto been placed in 
Streptothrix and Cladotlirix, others in Oospora, Nocardia , Bacillus , or 
Discomyces. Special cultures were made with Actinomyces albidoflavus 
Gasp., for the details of which research the original should be consulted. 
Parasitic Fungus in Cancer.§ — M. J. Chevalier isolated a parasite 
from cultures of cancerous tumours, primary and secondary carcinoma- 
tous and sarcomatous, from the blood of cancer patients, and from the 
air of cancer wards. The cultures were made in a bouillon of cow’s 
udder containing 2 per thousand of sodium chloride. Subcultures were 
made from the deposit in the bouillon, in glucose-bouillon, agar, serum, 
gelatin, potato, and cabbage. The optimum reaction was faintly alka- 
line, and the optimum temperature 28°-35°. In bouillon the predomi- 
nant forms were spores and conids, on cabbage a mycele with or without 
spores. In old cultures of any medium the two forms were found to- 
gether. In the fluid cultures there is a red colour when the spores are 
forming. The conid or cylindrical cell measures 6 p by 2 p. From 
this is developed a mycele and eventually endogenous conids. The 
spores are about 1 p in diameter, ruby red, and surrounded by a gela- 
tinous material. The best stains were Kiiline’s blue, gentian- violet, 
Poirier’s blue, and safranin. Cultures inoculated on animals (guinea-pigs, 
rabbits, and dogs) gave rise to local and metastatic tumours wl ich 
sometimes exhibited the appearances of sarcoma and sometimes of car- 
cinoma. 
* Biol. Central!)!., xix. (1899) pp. 285-6. 
t Journ. Quekett Micr. Club, vii. (1899) pp. 138-61 (2 pis.). 
1 Strassburg, 1898, 8vo, 75 pp., 1 pi. See Hedwigia, x'cxviii. (1899) Beibl., p. (29). 
§ Comptes Rendus, cxxviii. (1899) pp. 1293-6. 
