ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. SQS' 



Foraminifera from South African Upper Cretaceous."' — Frederick 

 Chapman reports on a collection of Foraminifera from the Upper 

 Cretaceous of Need's Camp, Buffalo River, Cape Province. He defines 

 Splroplecta deflata sp. n., and notes the generally Cretaceous aspect of 

 forms like Haplopliragmium neocomianum and Spiroplecta anceps. Forms 

 like Nodosarki ztppei, N. sulcata, Cristellaria parallela, C. intermedia, 

 and O. secans mark the Upper Cretaceous character of the beds. 



North Pacific Foraminifera.! — J. A. Cushman completes his mono- 

 graph of the Foraminifera of the North Pacific Ocean, dealing in this 

 sixth instalment with the Miliolidae. Many authorities have ranked this 

 family as primitive because it has apparently no pores in the tests, but 

 the discovery by several workers that the earlier chambers of some of 

 the highest genera in the family have a perforate test shows that the 

 ancestry must have been perforate. The greatest development as regards 

 number of species and complexity of structure seems to have been in the 

 late Cretaceous and early Tertiary. The author discusses the proloculum 

 or initial chamber, the " embryonic " stages, and the development of the 

 shell in Coriiuspira, Opthalmidium, Planispirina, Spiroloculina, Quin- 

 qiieloculina, Triloculina, Biloculina, Idalina, and PeneropJis. 



Entamoeba gingivalis from Human Mouth. | — • T. Goodey and 

 A. W. Wellings have brought together evidence from two sources : 

 viz. (1) the cytological investigation of the ingesta of the amoeba 

 {E. gwigivalis), and (2) the examination of a variety of oral conditions, 

 as to the relation of the amoeba to Pyorrhaa Alveolaris. The first 

 evidence leads them to the conclusion that the amoeba so far from being 

 a destroyer of healthy tissues in the mouth is in reality a devourer of 

 waste nuclear material derived from disintegrated salivary corpuscles 

 together with bacteria, and is therefore most probably a useful scavenger. 

 The second evidence leads them to the conclusion that the amoeba may 

 be found in healthy and unhealthy mouths, and is especially likely to 

 be found in situations where there is possibility for the accumulation of 

 food debris. The general conclusion of the authors is that there is no 

 evidence to show that E. gingivalis is the cause of disease. 



New Trichomonad from the Human Mouth.§ — T. Goodey describes 

 Tetratrichomonas buccalis sp. n. from the human mouth. It occurred in 

 food debris and showed great amoeboid activity, sending out pseudo- 

 podial extensions both anteriorly and posteriorly. It appears to ingest 

 bacteria. There are four flagella arising from a blepharoplast ; there is 

 an undulating membrane along most of one side, and with it there 

 seems to be associated a chromatinic basal rod or parabasal body. An 

 axostyle extends from the nucleus to the posterior end, where it some- 

 times projects in a spike. The species seems different from that found 

 in the intestine. 



* Ann. S. African Museum, xii. (1917) pp. 107-18 (2 pis.), 

 t U.S. Nat. Museum, Bull. No. 71 (1917) pp. 1-103 (39 pis.). 

 + Parasitology, ii. (1917) pp. 537-59 (3 pis.). 

 § Parasitology, ix. (1917) pp. 554-9 (1 pi.). 



