ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 269 



normal structural condition, but previous to the death of a culture, 

 atypical and degenerate individuals appeared, and these were similar to 

 degenerate animals found by former investigators, by whom they were 

 thought to be due to an inherent condition of senescence. 



The results indicate that the dying out of some of the cultures was 

 due, not to a condition of inherent senescence, but to the fact that the 

 culture conditions were unfavourable. In the case of Oxytricha, " sister- 

 cells " bred in a mass test-tube culture lived more than twice as long as 

 those bred in daily isolation cultures. In the case of Plenrotricha, 

 conditions have been found in which the organism will apparently live 

 indefinitely without conjugation or artificial stimulation. 



Sporogony and Systematic Position of Aggregata,* — Helen 

 L. M. Pixell-Goodrich describes Aggregata eberthi, a large Sporozoan 

 parasite of the alimentary cunal of Sepia officinalis, and finds that it is 

 undoubtedly to be included among the Coccidia, the fertilization being 

 not Gregarine in character, as described by Moroff, but typically 

 Coccidian. The large female gamete is fertilized by the small 

 active bi-flagellate microgamete, and the zygote so formed gives rise 

 to a large number of sporoblasts. The polymitotic nuclear divisions 

 giving rise to the microgametes are so similar to those giving rise 

 to the sporoblasts that they afford some evidence in favour of the view 

 that these stages are homologous. It is remarkable also that the 

 microgametes further resemble the sporoblasts in being enclosed in a 

 distinct cyst. 



New Piroplasmid in Mole.f — B. Galli-Valerio describes a new 

 Piroplasmid from the blood corpuscles of Talpa europsea, and refers it 

 to the genus Smithia Franca. The pyriform shape and the division into 

 four may be noted as characteristic of the genus, but the division was 

 not observed. The name proposed is S. talpse. 



New Myxobolus. J — S. Awerinzew describes Myxobolus magnus sp.n., 

 which he found in the eye of Acerina cernua, as white spots embedded in 

 the iris. These spots consisted of a mass of ripe Myxosporidian spores, 

 referable to the genus Myxobolus, and marked by the relatively large 

 size— 38-45 /x in length, by 32-38 /a in breadth, by 28-35 (jl in thick- 

 ness. The polar capsule, the polar thread, the large vacuole, the two 

 nuclei, and other features are described. 



* Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., lx. (1914) pp. 159-74 (1 pi.). 



t Oentralbl. Bakt. Parasitenk., lxxiii. (1914) lte Abt., pp. 142-3(1 fig.). 



X Zool. Anzeig., xlii. (1913) pp. 75-6 (1 fig.). 



