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RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 
organisms, notwithstanding Duncan’s remark that “ whilst recog- 
nising two or three forms of parasitic Algse within these scleren- 
chymatous structures of recent and ancient date, it does not follow 
that they are to be made into different species. They may all be 
parts of the same mycelium-like growth of the parasite, and may 
depend upon the nature of the nidus in which growth has taken 
place.”* * * § In this opinion I am supported by that of my colleague, 
Mr. Thomas Whitelegge, who has had great experience in the 
microscopic examination of Cryptogamic life. 
Tubes similar to both those now under description have been 
investigated by many Biologists, with the result of much difference 
of opinion as to their nature. Prof. John Quekett appears to 
have been one of the first to investigate similar chains of monili- 
form cells, and gave an excellent illustration! of them permeating 
the tissues of a coral, at the same time terming them “confervoid 
growths.” He remarked that “confervoid growths also are very 
frequently met with in the skeletons of corals, as all these bodies 
possess animal matter, which, decomposing after death, become a 
nidus for the development of confervas” In addition to a coral, 
he figured similar chains permeating the plates of a Chiton, \ 
“ large canals running through the entire thickness of the sections 
sometimes preventing the moniliform appearance represented at 
B” (his fig. 199). 
Fuller observations seem to have been made on the simpler 
tubes, whether of a straight or tortuous nature. Drs. Bowerbank 
and Carpenter contemporaneously conducted examinations of 
those permeating the hard parts of Mollusca, and both at 
first clearly misunderstood their nature. Bowerbank referred 
to these tubes as “ Haversian canals,” and speaking of them in 
the shell of Ostrea remarked, <£ sometimes they pursue their course 
through this tissue in nearly a straight line for a considerable 
distance without branching or anastomosing, while in other parts 
they are tortuous, frequently anastomose, and throw off branches, 
which have c^ecoid terminations,’^ 
In the years 1844 and 1847 Dr. W. B. Carpenter examined 
tubular perforations in the tests of Mollusca. He referred to 
simple tubes, more or less regularly disposed, and closely resembling 
those of an ordinary mycelium. In his first Report he said,j| “The 
direction and distribution of these tubes are extremely various in 
different shells ; in general they exist in considerable numbers, 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., xxxii., 1876, p. 209. 
f Lectures on Histology, ii., 1854, p. 153, fig. 78. 
J Ibid ., p. 323, fig. 199 B. 
§ Trans. Micro. Soc. i., 1844, p. 139, pi. xvi., fig. 5. 
|| On the Microscopic Structure of Shells. — Brit. Assoc. Report, 1844 
(1845), p. 13. 
