6 Lister. — Notes on the Plasmodmm of 
with water in a test-tube, just sufficiently to swell most of 
the grains, the effect is very different from what I have 
described. On the plasmodium reaching this swollen starch, 
it rapidly advances in a concentrated opaque mass, and at 
the same time the flow along the more distant veins is much 
accelerated. After some hours, when the wave of plasmodium 
has retired, all the completely swollen grains are found to 
have disappeared, while those that have been only slightly 
affected by the warm water have lost their softer portions 
and show their margins more or less eroded according to 
the length of time they have been subjected to the action 
of the plasmodium. In cases where repeated waves have 
passed over the starch, the erosion of such imperfectly 
softened grains is markedly greater, but they are not entirely 
consumed, and there always remains a large residuum of 
whole or eroded grains. Application of iodine shows the 
side of the box to be strewn with small fragments of starch. 
It is very difficult to observe the process of absorption, 
because the stimulus given to the plasmodium occasions it 
to accumulate in a broad border, often i mm. in thickness, 
and it is only after its retreat that we can see the change 
that has taken place. 
The plasmodium with which one of these observations was 
made, had crawled upon a glass shade from a pile of Stereum 
over which it had been placed. I took off the shade and 
half filled it with water, and with a feather gently detached 
the film of plasmodium, allowing it to float about ; I then 
passed under it a piece of wet cotton wool, and in this way 
was able to collect it upon the wool without materially 
disturbing the network of veins. I placed it in a clean glass 
box, and with a pair of forceps took out the remaining 
floating pieces and added them to the rest ; by these means 
the streaming of the plasmodium is hardly checked, and it 
will often begin to climb up the side of the box in the course 
of a few minutes. This method is useful when it is desired 
to make experiments with pure plasmodium free from any 
foreign matter. 
