Ward. — Some Thames Bacteria . 315 
Now it is pretty clear that apart from that curious lateral 
branch, there is very little to denote that this is not a typical 
Schizomycete, the segmentation of which is at first into rather 
long rods (10-12 ju) and then into shorter ones (about 3-4 f). 
But there was no doubt that the branch was a true branch, 
and further examination in hanging-drops under the y^ and 
2V immersion led to the proof that this organism is not a true 
Schizomycete at all , but an oidium-stage of an extremely 
minute fungus. 
The following series (Fig. 5), traced under the y 1 ^ in a broth- 
drop, will suffice to demonstrate this. 
At 6. 1 5 a.m. a rodlet (a) 3 x 1 ju. was fixed, and at 8.40 a.m. it 
had grown out to a short curved filament (b) about 12 ju long : 
this was longer and distinctly segmented (c) at 9 a.m., and just 
before 10 o’clock ( d ) the longer segment was forming two 
branches, which had grown considerably by 11.10, and at 
12.30 p.m. had crossed one over the other (e and /). The long 
segments now showed several septa, not easy to see but 
certainly visible with careful focussing. At 2 p.m. (g) the 
segments were breaking apart, after further growth of the 
terminal ones , i. e. the growth was not intercalary . At 7 p.m. 
(h) quite a large colony of separated segments, like rods, had 
formed, only part of which is figured. And next morning 
the still more broken up rod-like segments — some curved — ■ 
had spore-like, brilliant oval bodies in them (/). These are 
of the nature of oidia or chlamy do spores, in fact. These stain 
easily, with the ordinary alkaline methylene-blue, for instance. 
As the figures (Figs. 4, 5 and 7) show, these stainable 
points appear before the final segmentation of the rods into 
coccus-like short joints— oidia — and then the membrane 
appears to thicken round them, converting them into spore- 
like chlamy dospores. 
Now, the point of special interest is that here we have an 
organism which, according to all its properties as tested by 
ordinary bacteriological methods, is a Bacterium. Its micro- 
scopic appearances, as shown in stained preparations, its 
behaviour in plate-cultures, and on and in all the usual media 
