34 Ward. — -Recent Researches on the Parasitism of Fungi. 
which had taken up the stain, and so showed up these cells, distinguished 
of course from cells which had been cut into. 
The references to the obscure Pseudocommis of Viala and Sauvageau 
(188) and to Plasmodiophora (206) appear to me particularly unfortunate, 
for Prillieux (136, p. 47), writing in 1895, was quite unable to accept the 
views of Viala and Sauvageau ; and Tubeuf, writing in the same year (72, 
p. 545), also points out that there is no proof forthcoming of the existence 
of such a parasite. Indeed, the autonomy of Pseudocommis has been 
accepted by no authority. 
Moreover, I have myself observed, especially in tropical plants, 
appearances and alterations in the protoplasm of cells quite like Viala’ s, 
but which are due to physiological changes ; and I may refer you to Miss 
Dale’s work, in this laboratory, on intumescences (52) for some interesting 
results suggesting how such phenomena may be artificially induced. 
The reference to Plasmodiophora , so beautifully worked out by Woronin 
in 1877-8 (206), is still more unfortunate; for not only did Woronin obtain 
the spores and germinate them, but Nawashin has shown (118) that it is 
perfectly easy to distinguish the amoebae in the cells throughout their life. 
Eriksson, however, not only accepts all the dubious cases of Pseudo- 
commis , &c., described by various authors, but suggests that even where 
hyphae coexist probably the so-called plasmodia ‘ nichts anders sind als 
Mycoplasmastadien verschiedener Hyphenpilze’ (66, p. 12). 
After making the most of this very questionable evidence, Eriksson 
then proceeds to a curious shifting of his position. 
Hitherto, as we have seen, the mycoplasm was intracellular. He 
now passes to the consideration of a stage (66, Taf. II, Fig. 10) where it is 
intercellular, but concludes that this position was accidentally attained 
owing to manipulation during the preparation. 
Eriksson then devotes his attention to certain phenomena observed at 
the edges of incipient pustules. 
The first point to notice is that very young hyphae, which he terms 
protomycelium , are figured as partly creeping filaments, and partly as 
irregular masses filling up the intercellular spaces. 
These are described by the author as follows : ‘ Keine Scheidewande 
sind vorhanden, auch keine erkennbare Kerne, nur zerstreute etwas starker 
farbbare Kornchen, oft mehrere dicht bei einander. Deutliche Membranen 
heben sich auch nicht von dem Plasma ab ; ob solche in der Tat vorkommen 
oder nicht, muss fortgesetzten Untersuchungen vorbehalten sein zu ent- 
scheiden.’ 
Owing to their ‘almost plasmodium-like nature,’ and the complete 
lack of septa, these structures are alleged to differ essentially from the 
normal mycelium, and are called ‘protomycelia.’ 
We then read : ‘ Nach den bis jetzt vorliegenden Auseinandersetzungen 
