removed from the action of oxygen became the seats of alcoholic fermentation with evolution of carbonic acid, and without the appearance in their tissues of any alcoholic fungi. These observations confirm the statements of Pasteur in 1861, that if plants continued to live in an atmosphere of carbonic acid they became ferments for sugar and behaved like beer yeast. M. Fremy thought that the true explanation was that yeast cells were formed, and to settle this question M. Muntz made his experiments, and found that the plants he grew in air produced no alcohol; that those grown in nitrogen afforded appreciable quantities; and the plants continued to develop. He did not search for mycoderms, but assumed none were present, because the plants began in a few hours to produce oxygen and preserved their vitality, which he considers they would not have done had they been invaded by fungi. To detect minute quantities of alcohol he employed Lieben's method, which depends upon the action of iodine and an alkali at a slightly elevated temperature upon alcohol. It gives rise to iodoform (a yellow solid), the production of which he watched under the microscope. He supports the conclusions of Pasteur that the living cells of the higher plants can in the absence of oxygen act like fungus cells and produce a true alcoholic fermentation.* The Inversion of Sugar by Fungi.-M. Gayon states to the French Academy, as the result of his observations, that Penicillium glaucum, Sterigmatocystis nigra (Aspergillus niger) rapidly invert sugar solutions, but other Mucors, such as M. spinosus, M. mucedo, M. circinelloides, Rhizopus nigricans, leave them intact. The unicellular plants Pasteur calls torulas, act also as inverting ferments. When the mucors are obliged to live without free oxygen in the must of beer or wine, their mycelium becomes chambered and develops ferment cells, which reproduce themselves in the same form while the conditions are unchanged, but develop in the normal state when replaced in very aerated liquids. The ferment cells of Mucor circinelloides are spherical, and remarkable for activity of pullulation. In solutions of levulose, or glucose, the alcoholic fermentation proceeds as in beer must, but in cane-sugar solutions no such action occurs, as the sugar is not inverted by the mucors mentioned. M. Trécul, commenting upon these observations, concluded that those observers were right who affirmed that P. glaucum could pass into the form of beer yeast and return back to its original form, which M. Pasteur denied. M. Pasteur, in reply, referred to his 'Études sur la Bière' as confuting this idea.t Formation of Blood Fibrin.-M. Hayem described to the French Academy microscopical studies on this subject. He states that the bodies he calls hæmatoblasts, which can be recognized in living animals, experience great alterations when they pass out of the vessels. He states that when a preparation of coagulated frog's blood has a current of iodized serum passed through it the "hæmaties " may be seen disposed in rosettes around masses of hæmatoblasts, fixed in their positions by filaments springing from the centre of the *Comptes Rendus,' January 7, 1878. + Ibid. rosettes. This mode of treating the blood displays the hæmatoblasts transformed into irregular, angular, stellate corpuscles, with extremely fine delicate fibrils springing from them, branching and forming a network not easily seen, except they are coloured with iodine. Human blood exhibits these changes very plainly. The hæmatoblasts of the ovipora, like those of the higher vertebrates, experience rapid modifications. A few minutes after the preparation is made they become much changed, and may be seen in the interspaces between the hæmaties as little corpuscles, mostly spinous, isolated, or grouped in chaplets; afterwards in small irregular masses. These corpuscles are in general more highly refractive than the hæmatoblasts that form them, and are often of a greenish yellow colour. If blood is taken from a living animal and diffused through enough iodized serum to hinder coagulation, the hæmatoblasts appear isolated and in their normal shape, but after some hours they exhibit small prolongations that seem formed of their own substance. In defribrinated blood neither hæmatoblasts nor their corpuscles are found, and this is the case with blood taken from a dead body after post mortem coagulation. The hæmatoblasts, as well as being destined to become adult red globules, possess special properties, and may be considered as a third species of blood elements. Are they the determinating cause of coagulation? This seems probable. At any rate, three factors are concerned in coagulation; a substance proceeding by exosmose from the hæmatoblasts, and which perhaps represents paraglobulin; isolated or grouped corpuscles formed by them in the process of cadaveric change, and from which the network of fibrils springs; and a substance primitively dissolved in the plasma, modified in the presence of the matter exuded by the hæmatoblasts, and forming by precipitation nearly all the fibril network. In their normal state the smallest hæmatoblast corpuscles are about 1μ in diameter, and the largest rarely more than 8μ. In intense anæmia, especially when allied to a cachectic condition, we see voluminous masses formed by the hæmatoblasts 60 or 70 μ in their largest diameter, but usually the network springing from them is less than in the normal state. In acute maladies, the hæmatoblasts are less abundant, but, contrary to what is observed in cachexies, the fibrin forms a rich and thick network.* Action of very Low Temperature on Bacteria.-While the action of high temperature on bacteria has been frequently studied, few observations have been made as to their behaviour at low temperatures, but it has been found that they stiffen at 0° (C.), and are not killed at - 18° to 25° (C.). Herr A. Frisch by means of solid carbonic acid and ether exposed some putrefactive fluid bacteria and some forms of coccus and bacterium in the morbid products of living organisms to 87.5°, and allowed them in the course of 2 hours to rise to 0°. The result was that the bacteria in the fluid withstood this low temperature, and was able to grow rapidly when transferred to a suitable nutritive fluid. Further information is to be given concerning the resisting power of Coccus, Bacterium, and Bacillus.† * Comptes Rendus,' Jan. 7, 1878. Der Naturforscher,' 5, 1878. Chrysalis Mimicry.—A species of butterfly in Venezuela observed by Gollmer (Aidos amanda) makes a cocoon which it fastens to a twig, and which has the appearance of round holes. It is composed of two layers, of which the outer one is perforated, and the inner one so bent in as to leave a hollow space between the two. The chrysalis is protected by the strong inner layer which is not seen from outside, and the outer layer appears bored right through, and looks like the hole left by a species of wasp when it emerges from the pupa state. * Diatom Desiccation and Revival.-The Journal de Micrographie' for December, 1877, gives a paper on this subject by Paul Petit, who states that after vainly searching amongst dried mud containing diatoms for spores or zygospores, he made the following experiments:He collected at various times of the year diatoms with their substratum of mud, and allowed them to dry in the sun, sheltered from dust; some for, six, some for eight months. Last September he examined fragments from these deposits, and found the frustules transparent and seeming empty; but a careful investigation showed that in the interior of a considerable number there were some large brown granules, which he took for desiccated endochrome. The vessels containing them were then filled with distilled water that had been well aerated, and exposed to direct light and heat of the sun. For the first three days little change was noticed, but from the fourth day the brown granules augmented in volume and assumed the yellowish tint characteristic of diatom endochrome. Watching from day to day the increase of the plasma in volume, he noticed that at the end of five days it filled half the frustule, and on the eighth day assumed its characteristic form. The Naviculæ then began their curious motions, and some days later commenced to multiply by division. Some of the frustules did not recover, and this he thought was because they had been dried too rapidly. Searching for Trichina.-M. Tikhomiroff, in making a microscopic examination of pork supposed to contain this parasite, digests small pieces for half an hour with their weight of chlorate of potash, to which he adds four times as much nitric acid. The muscular tissue thus treated is agitated with distilled water till the fibrils separate. If the trichina is present, a hand lens shows the fibrils with fusiform swellings, and the microscope recognizes the creatures.† A Fossil Spider.- La Nature,' January 26, 1878, gives a magnified drawing of a fossil spider, Attoides eresiformis, discovered by M. Ch. Brongniart in the tertiary marls of Aix, in Provence. It is about 3.5 mm. long, and allied to the recent Salticus (Attus) and Eresus. The French Academy has awarded 600 francs to M. Bagnis for a monograph of Puccinia, and the Commission to which his work was referred, observe that authors admit more than 370 species of this genus, generally characterized and named according to the plant they infest. This implies that one plant only nourishes one Puccinia, and that each Puccinia is only parasitic on a particular plant. M. Bagnis * Der Naturforscher,' 1, 1878. La Nature,' February 2, 1878. now shows the contrary to be the case, and that one plant may nourish many distinct forms of Puccinia, and that one Puccinia may be found on very different plants. He also shows that the grouping of the spots formed by the fructification of these fungi depends more upon the plant that nourishes it than upon the fungus, and that these characters cannot be regarded as specific. On the Bed-bug and its Allies. By Professor Leidy.-In the western part of our country, observed Professor Leidy, I frequently heard that bed-bugs were to be found at any time beneath the bark of the cottonwood and the pine. In these positions I never found one, nor have I ever found the insect except in the too-familiar proximity of man. Recently, when in the west, while watching some cliff swallows passing in and out of their retort-shaped nests, built under the eaves of a house, I was told that these nests swarmed with bedbugs, and that usually people would not allow the birds to build in such places, because they introduced bed-bugs into the houses. Having collected a number of the bugs, as well as others from the interior of the house, specimens of both of which are submitted for examination by members, I found that while the latter are true bedbugs, Cimex lectularius, the former are of a different species, the Cimex hirundinis. The bugs infesting the bat and pigeon have likewise been recognized as a peculiar species, with the name of C. pipistrelli and C. columbarius. Professor Leidy further noticed that the habit of the C. hirundinis was similar to that of C. lectularius in the circumstance that the bugs during the daytime would secrete themselves in crevices of the boards away from the nests. After sunset he had observed the bugs leave their hiding-places, and make their way to the nests. From these observations it would appear as if the peculiar bugs of the animals mentioned did not reciprocally infest their hosts.* OBITUARY. We very much regret that we are unable to give any adequate biographical notice of our late friend, Dr. LAWSON. We have done our best to procure some details of his life previous to his residence in London, but have not yet received the promised assistance of our friends in Birmingham, where he was Professor of Physiology at Queen's College. On coming up to London he was first lecturer on Histology at St. Mary's Medical School, and afterwards lecturer on Physiology and the paid physician. At that time he did some good original work in the anatomy of snails, and denied the existence of an ovotestis. He also, before Günther, proved that whitebait are young herrings. He also wrote a paper on the lungs, heart, and blood-corpuscles of the slug, and others on the anatomy and physiology of gasteropods. *Proc. Nat. Sci.,' Philadelphia. Latterly we have all known him well as a member of our Council and Editor of our Journal. He was elected a Fellow in 1868, and became Editor of the Monthly Microscopical Journal' when it was first established in 1869. He continued to perform the editorial duties until his death, on the 4th of October, 1877, in his thirty-seventh year, and his removal from us has led to the entire discontinuance of that Journal, and to the resolution of the Council to publish our own 'Transactions.' JAMES SCOTT BOWERBANK, LL.D., F.R.S., &c., was born in Sun Street, Bishopsgate, London, on the 14th July, 1797, and received his early education from the then celebrated Dr. Kelly, of Finsbury Square, London. About the age of fifteen he entered his father's distillery, where in subsequent years, and in conjunction with his late brother Edward, the business was carried on under the name of Bowerbank and Sons. At this early period his scientific tastes began to develop, leading him to the study of astronomy, chemistry, botany, geology, anatomy, and physiology, which occupied every available moment of his time not devoted to business, which he pursued with ardour, but made it available whenever possible for his scientific studies. About the year 1820 he joined the old Mathematical Society meeting in Crispin Street, Spitalfields, where he attended the lectures of a Mr. Wilson, a name famous at that time. In this Society he was subsequently appreciated as a lecturer on geology, botany, anatomy, and physiology, and his diagrams and botanical models were used at one of the metropolitan hospitals for some years in their lectures. As a member of the London Clay Club he investigated the fossil fruits and seeds from the Isle of Sheppey, and in 1840 began their history; but this publication was not continued. 180,000 fruits and seeds are now in the British Museum as a result of his industry in collecting. Out of this gathering of earnest workers came the "Palæontographical Society" in 1847-a Society which has done so much to make known the richness of the fossils of our own country, having figured 22,754 specimens, and described 4444 species in 30 volumes. For many years Dr. Bowerbank was its Hon. Sec.; for ten years, and at the time of his death, its President. Entomology was a favourite study of his in early days. He wrote a valuable paper in the Entomological Magazine, 1833, on "the Structure of Scales on the Wings of Lepidopterous Insects." He had also observed the circulation of the blood in the larvæ of Ephemera marginata, and many other matters too numerous to mention here. The microscope was his especial delight and study, and by its use his investigations into the structure and habit of sponges, both recent and fossil, have been greatly facilitated, and brought to a state of comparative completeness. Bowerbank was one of the originators of the Royal Microscopical Society, and had filled the office of President. He was also a contributor to its Transactions,' and in the Journal for June 1st, 1870, may be |