68 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



features of the changes in the nuclei of metazoan cells in division. 

 The raacronucleus dominates above all the functions of nutrition,, 

 assimilation, and movement ; it is very susceptible to changes in the 

 conditions of life, and assumes sometimes, among other transformations, 

 characters which recall the appearance of chromosomes. On the whole, 

 the structure of the nuclei is complicated, and the changes in the macro- 

 nucleus varied in relation to the numerous functions of the organism. 



Action of Induction Shocks on Ciliata.* — P. Statkewitsch gives 

 a very full account of the behaviour of seventeen different species of 

 Ciliata to stimuli of this type. There are two different groups of 

 results from single induction shocks, which he relates to both physio- 

 logical reaction and to structure, viz. certain movements of the cilia 

 (which occur in all), and alteration of the form of the individual in 

 consequence of the contraction of the outer layers. These results are 

 detailed for each of the species examined. His results contradict 

 Pfliiger's law of polar excitation. 



Micro-fauna of Boulder Clay.f — Joseph Wright found Foraminifera 

 in three-fourths of 134 samples of boulder clay from widely separate 

 localities. With one or two exceptions all the species found in the clay 

 occurred recently off our coast. More than half the specimens are 

 referable to Nonionina depressula, and Gassidulina crassa, though some- 

 what rare, as a recent British species is often plentiful. Porcellanous 

 forms are usually very rare, and the only arenaceous form is Haplo- 

 phragm htm canariense. 



North American G-regarines.J — Howard Crawley has prepared a list 

 of the Polycystid Gregarines of the United States. He has made a care- 

 ful examination of the species, and has established twelve new ones, 

 which he carefully describes and figures, giving in each case the locality 

 and the host. 



In a subsequent paper,§ Crawley continues his list of North American 

 Polycystid Gregarines, and gives a description of two new genera and 

 several new species. He also adds a note on the time required for a 

 Gregarine cyst to mature, and gives a short account of the cysts of 

 Acutispora macroc&phala. 



Tick Fever. || — J. F. Anderson confirms the observations of Wilson 

 and Chowning, who discovered the presence of an intracorpuscular 

 parasite in spotted or tick fever. It is not pigmented ; it shows amoeboid 

 movements ; it is arranged in pairs, or occurs as a single pyriform or 

 ovoid body. It stains with difficulty ; and is never found in large 

 numbers. Cultivations were negative. 



-^ 



* Le Physiologiste Russe, iii. (1903) pp. 1-55. 



t Rep. and Proc. Belfast Nat. Hist, and Phil. Soc, 1902-3, pp. 47-50. 



t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1903, pp. 41-5S (3 pis.). 



§ Tom. cit., pp. 632-44 (1 pi.). 



|| Bull. No. 14, Hygien. Lab. U.S.A., 1903, 50 pp. (3 pis.). 



■» I< g a I • 



