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strongly acid or corrosive liquids, such as would be poisonous tó most other creatures. It may in reality be said of them that they live only in substances unfavourable to life in most other animals.

The Anguillula Aceti is only found in the inferior and diluted vinegars of commerce. In the strongest vinegars sent out by manufacturers of repute, it never occurs; the reason of which is, that considerable care is taken to separate all mucilaginous or albuminous vegetable matters from the acid. This is effected by certain refining processes, as well as by the addition, allowed by law, of a certain quantity of oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid) to every gallon of vinegar, before it is sent out to the retailer. The legal quantity of this strongly corrosive acid is often exceeded in the commoner or badly manufactured vinegars; otherwise they would rapidly spoil, and generate the vinegar eel, and become mouldy, or mothery, as it is more commonly termed.

Dr. Hassall found that many other ingredients are used in the adulteration of vinegar; and in eighteen samples out of twentyeight examined by him, he found not only a larger proportion of the oil of vitriol than there should have been, but also remains of vegetable and other matters, some of which were positively of a deleterious nature. Nevertheless, in a very short time, all were soon more or less covered over by some fungoid growth. From this fact we may gather that very great difficulty is experienced in preventing the vinegars of commerce from undergoing rapid decomposition; doubtless arising from the facility with which the sporules of fungi, as well as other organized bodies floating about, find a ready access to the fluid, and which appears to afford all the required elements for development and growth.

Although well known that water is rarely if ever found free from the presence of either living or decaying vegetable matter, we were, perhaps, not quite prepared to find another fluid, having a large admixture of a strongly corrosive acid, and which at first sight might, without much hesitation, be pronounced noxious to the growth of either vegetable or animal, offering a suitable nidus for the development and nourishment of both; and we at once see that it would be quite at variance with facts to say that vinegar cels "are developed in vinegar only, without the addition of any decaying organic substance."*

The foot-note twice referred to in the course of this paper is our own: and our readers might be disposed to infer that there is a difference of opinion between the author and ourselves. This is not the case. When we spoke of "vinegar only," we referred to the addition of slices of truffle, and VOL. II.-NO. VI. Q

The accurate drawing of the vinegar eels made by Mr. C. Whitley for this paper, so faithfully portrays the little creature in its several phases of life, that it appears unnecessary to add anything by way of further description. It may, however, not be uninteresting to add, that this minute and curious eel is not unfrequently made the means of practising upon the unwary a gross but very characteristic imposition by the advertising quacks who infest this great metropolis. A victim offering himself to be fleeced is usually received in a well made-up room, lined by book-cases and illuminated diagrams of the organic structures in the human body, healthy and unhealthy. Instead of the old-fashioned stuffed alligators suspended from the ceiling, the Paracelsus of modern times ostentatiously parades the most showy and expensive microscope obtainable, in closest consultation with which he takes care to be found by the patient, just as an ant-lion may be supposed to be studying nature as he reposes at the bottom of his conical trap, the sloping sides of which, made up of the finest sand, prove a very facilis descensus to his unsuspecting prey, who ventures on the treacherous surface. Proceeding to business after some preliminary anxious inquiries, the doctor (!) gravely proposes to aid his diagnosis by that crucial test, the microscope. The dismay of the poor victim may be more easily imagined than described, when, on being pressed to see for himself, the state of affairs is revealed to his agitated mind, in a mass of wriggling little worms, disporting themselves in the smallest drop of fluid derived from his natural juices. The doom of Herod-" and he was eaten of worms"-to him needs no more elucidating commentary, and if the conscience-smitten patient does not, like the tetrarch, presently give up the ghost, he is in a very apt mood to part with all the cash he may have about him, in order to be kept out of a situation, the horrible nature of which, had it not thus been demonstrated to his senses, he could never have conceived. I have sketched no overdrawn picture, but rather one, I fear, of daily occurrence; and the manner all this is effected is exceedingly simple. The smallest particle of sour paste, previously placed on a slip of glass, lies imperceptible to the unpractised

never meant to infer that the vinegar itself contains no organic matter. But there is no need to discuss the question of heterogenesis with reference to vinegar; for boiled distilled water alone will, if exposed for a few days (under certain conditions of the atmosphere), be found to contain distinct types of Infusoria. This fact we discovered last summer, and communicated to Section D of the British Association. So our scientific readers must not suppose that we have been seeking to adduce evidence in favour of the theory of spontaneous generation.-ED.

eye, until a single drop of any fluid secretion from the body supplies the required conditions of moisture; and, accordingly, the little paste-eels are immediately aroused to life and activity, reversing the fable of the frogs and boys, as the lively enjoyment they exhibit is apt to prove a very serious matter to the human being so shamefully victimized.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE X.

Figs. 1 & 2. Young animals soon after leaving the egg.

Fig. 3. Male, full grown.

Fig. 4. Male, with reproductive organs in situ, separated at c and d, and magnified × 350.

Figs. 5 & 6. Females, with ovisacs in situ, containing eggs in various stages of development.

a a. Eggs thrown off and found floating in the fluid.

Fig. 7. A dead male, in which state they float about for days, until destroyed by vibriones.

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