Some of the more important saprophytes are those organisms which play an important and useful part in our every-day life, such as, for instance, in the phenomena associated with fermentation, and putrefaction agents which transform dead and decomposing organic matter into their simpler elements, thus completing the great life cycle, and rendering the dead and effete matter again ready for the vital processes. Among other life manifestations of certain bacteria may be mentioned those which have the property of generating colouring matter, though not chlorophyll. The bacteria themselves are colourless and transparent, and the pigment is merely formed as a product of their metabolism, especially under the influence of light. Many of the bacteria give rise to various gases and odours, particularly the anærobic organisms, which originate those foul putrefactive gases (ammonia, sulphuretted hydrogen, &c.). The blood-rain, _Micrococcus prodigiosus_, gives off an odour resembling trimethylamin. Micro-organisms have the property of producing various changes in the medium on which they are grown. In many cases albuminous bodies are peptonized and gelatine is liquefied. Many bacteria have the faculty of resolving organic bodies into their simplest elements; others, again, have the property of converting ammonia into nitric and nitrous acid. Certain microbes have the property of becoming phosphorescent in the dark. These phosphorescent bacteria are often seen on decaying plants and wood; sometimes in tropical climates the sea becomes luminous owing to the presence of countless numbers of these organisms. Again, they are frequently seen on the surface of dead fish, particularly mackerel, which often become so bright as to strongly illuminate the cupboard in which they lie. The particular class of fungi that produce disease in man and the higher animals are generally known as “pathogenic.” These pathogenic organisms may exert their pernicious power in several ways. They may be injurious on account of their abstracting nourishment from the blood or tissues, or for the purely mechanical reason of their stopping up the minute capillaries and blood-vessels by their excessive multiplication. But the poisonous action of most of the pathogenic bacteria is due to the chemical products secreted by the organisms, and it is to the circulation and absorption within the body of these poisons that the disturbances of the animal system, which characterise disease, decay, and dissolution of every organism, must be traced. Parasitic Diseases of Plants.