Ward . — Some Thames Bacteria . 317 
various forms of Bacteria (in the wide sense) with Protozoa 
and Myxomycetes, and merely admitting that such alliance 
may well exist among the group, I would simply refer to 
a possible source of confusion which has become more and 
more probable since Brefeld has made us acquainted with 
the frequency of oidium-forms and chlamydospores among 
the Fungi 1 , namely that these forms when very minute may 
easily be confounded with Schizomycetes. The only test is 
the acropetal mode of growth. 
That minute yeast-forms are also liable to be mistaken for 
Micrococci is evident. I had recently in my laboratory a 
minute organism which grows in Canada-balsam, and am as 
yet unable to say with certainty whether it is a yeast-form or 
a Schizomycete. 
Here then we have a good deal of matter for further re- 
search, for it is almost certain that minute organisms which 
will grow in gelatine and other media, and which stain by 
ordinary methods, are continually being described as Schizo- 
mycetes without the application of the only test which 
really decides the question. 
I am strongly inclined to the opinion that we shall have to 
revise our views as to the divisions of the accepted Schizomy- 
cetes very much before long. P'or instance, Fischer’s recent 
work on the cilia of Bacteria 2 seems to raise the question 
whether we must not assume a different origin for the ciliated 
forms of ‘ bacilli ’ and for the non-ciliated ones ; and, in view of 
Ali-Cohen’s discovery of a ciliated ‘ Micrococcus 3 ’ (M. agilis ), 
the same applies to the Micrococci. 
In any case it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the 
organisms grouped under the common denomination ot 
Bacteria (in the wide sense, but including obvious Fungi) are 
a heterogeneous collection of organisms with very different 
alliances, some of which have been indicated 4 . 
1 Brefeld., 1 . c. 2 Unters. lib. d. Bau d. Cyanophyceen und Bakterien. 
3 Centralbl. f. Bakt., Band vi, p. 33. 
4 Migula, System d. Bakterien, 1897, and Fischer, Vorlesungen liber Bakterien, 
1897, have recently proposed extensive revisions of the classification, and have 
raised similar questions, but not quite the same points as 1 have here suggested. 
