ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 287 



follow the development, and in this preliminary communication points 

 out that the parasite, on account of its eight spores, should rather be 

 referred to the genus Thelohania. The life-history, so far as known, 

 is as follows : — the sporonts divide into eight spores by typical direct 

 division. Mingled with the sporonts occur meronts which probably 

 produce auto-infection, and which divide into two, the daughter-cells 

 again dividing before separation. Meronts and sporonts are connected 

 by transitional forms, but the exact relation, and the occurrence of a 

 sexual act, remain uncertain. The eight spores formed by the division 

 of the sporont are connected together and invested by a gelatinous 

 sheath, within which they ripen. 



Genus Hsemogregarina.* — Carl Borner has examined various rep- 

 tiles for blood parasites, and has found in Crocodilus frontatus and 

 Alligator mississippiensis a new species of the above genus which he 

 describes as H. crocodilinorum sp. n. ; in Clemmys elegans and species of 

 Platemys a form which he calls H. labbei sp. n. ; and in Coluber sesculapii 

 one to which he gives the name H. colubri sp. n. The result of his 

 research is to show that representatives of the genus Hiemogregarina 

 occur in all the four orders of reptiles, as well as in Bana esculenta. 

 A list of the known species and their hosts is included in the paper. 

 The author obtained only negative results with infection experiments, 

 and believes that there must be a second host, probably the mites with 

 which most reptiles are infested. Considerable difficulty was ex- 

 perienced in finding constant specific characters, and the author leaves 

 open the question whether the forms mentioned above may not have 

 merely varietal significance. The life-history Avas not followed, but 

 during the growth-period two forms occur, a straight form and one 

 sharply bent upon itself. In the first the cytoplasm consists of the so- 

 called intergranular substance and the chromatoid granula ; the latter 

 is most abundant in the young stages, and is almost absent in the bent 

 stage. The nucleus is distinct, varies in form, and is without a nuclear 

 membrane. The bent stage results from a growth in length, and a 

 diminution in breadth. 



Parasite found in Syphilides.j — H. Stassano records the presence 

 of flagellated Infusoria belonging to the group Monadina in the lym- 

 phatic glands nearest a chancre. In shape, these infusoria are round, 

 ovoid, or pyriform, are always flagellated, and contain one or two vacuoles. 

 Though most are free in the plasma, many are adherent to red cor- 

 puscles. Multiplication takes place by fission. Frequently their appear- 

 ance strikingly resembles that of yeast. As the disease advances fission 

 ceases and the parasites attach themselves to red corpuscles, and in this 

 position have much resemblance to trypanosoma. 



* Zeitschr. wiss. Zool., Ixvi. (1901) pp. 398-416 (1 pi.). * 

 t Coinptes Rendus, cxxxii. (1901) pp. 800-2 (44 figs.). 



