48 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Selysina perforans Dub. — 0. Duboscq {Arch. Zool. Exper., 1918, 

 58, 1-53, 1 pi., 11 figs.). All account is given of this remarkable 

 Sporozoon from the Ascidian Stolonica socialis. It occurs in various 

 stages — spores, sporozoites, nodular cysts, small cysts, large persistent 

 cysts — in the blood corpuscles or in the giant cells of the adult Ascidian, 

 or in the statoblasts (dormant buds). A tentative account of the com- 

 plicated life-cycle is given, but the sexual reproduction remains unknown. 

 It seems that Selysina has affinities with Gregarines, Coccidia and 

 Sarcosporidia. Provisionally it may be ranked near the Coccidiomorpha. 



J. A. T. 



Coccidia Parasitic in Man.— Clifford T^o^wli. {Parasitology, 1919, 

 11, 147-97, 1 pL, 2 figs.). An inquiry into all the recorded cases of human 

 coccidiosis and a study of the coccidia themselves have yielded a much- 

 needed revision. There are four distinct species which may parasitize 

 man : — (1) Isopora hominis Eivolta, 1878 (emend.), discovered by 

 Xjellberg in 18G0, and recently investigated by Wenyon ; (2) Eimeria 

 n'enyoni sp. n., a form discovered in 1915 by Wenyon ; (3) Eimeria 

 oxys2)ora sp. n., here described for the first time ; and (4) an undeter- 

 mined species of Eimeria (?) which was discovered by Gubler in 1858. 

 This last inhabits the liver ; the three others probably live in the small 

 intestine. Probably some seventy cases of infection with Isospora have 

 been seen ; the others appear to be extremely rare. The four are 

 peculiar to man, and there is no evidence that there are others in man. 

 There is no proof that the coccidia of man — with the probable exception 

 of the species occurring in the liver — can produce a clinically recognizable 

 condition of '* coccidiosis." Ko eradicating treatment is known. 



J. A. T. 



Fossil Foraminifera from Panama. — J. A. Cushman {Smithsonian 

 Just. U.S. Nat. 3Lus. Bull, 1918, 103, 89-102, pis. 34-45) describes 

 from Eocene horizons of the canal zone in Panama six Lysidocyclina;, 

 four of which are recorded as new, and for the last of which, L. duplicata, 

 he proposes a new sub-genus Multicyclina. He founds a' new genus 

 Heterostiginoides upon a form to which he gives the name H. panamensis. 

 He describes an Orthophragmina and two Nummulites, all of which are 

 recorded as new species, and a new species of OrhitoUtes, 0. americana. 

 The paper is admirably and profusely illustrated, but we cannot help 

 deploring the erection of new species of these very variable forms upon 

 minor variations which are to be met with in all the typical and 

 accepted forms of these fossils. 0. americana is illustrated by three 

 excellent plates, but we should have no hesitation in referring the tests 

 to 0. complanata. H.-A. & E. 



Fresh-water Rhizopoda of Sydney and Lismore, N.S.W.— G. I. 

 Playfair {Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1917, part 4, 633-75, pis. 

 34-41 and 7 text-figs.) describes these organisms from ninety gatherings 

 from the named localities, made from Sphagnum, Pond Weeds, Plankton 

 (Sydney Water Supply) and Swamp — which includes all ground-collec- 

 tions This admirably illustrated paper is evidently the work of a 

 keen and industrious observer, but the author seems to be infected with 



