214] The Classification of Lower Organisms 



P. falciparum, that of malignant tertian. 



In order that a great mass of literature may be read without confusion, it is ex- 

 pedient that these names be arbitrarily maintained. The International Commission 

 of Zoological Nomenclature has duly taken action to this effect. 



Family 3. Babesiida [Babesiidae] Poche in Arch. Prot. 30: 241 (1913). Family 

 Theileridae du Toit in Arch. Prot. 39: 94 (1918). Minute intracellular parasites 

 transmitted by arthropods; sexual reproduction unknown. Theileria Bettencourt et al. 

 causes a fever of cattle in Africa; the parasites multiply in the tissue cells and spread 

 to the ery'throcytes, by which ticks are infected. Babesia Stercovici [Piro plasma Pat- 

 ton) is similar, but the parasites multiply in the erythrocytes. B. bigemina causes 

 the Texas fever of cattle. 



The minute nucleus of Babesia bigemina is largely filled by a single granule, a 

 karyosome. This is connected by a rhizoplast to an extranuclear granule which has 

 been identified as a blepharoplast, although no flagellum is present. In nuclear divi- 

 sion, as described by Dennis (1930), the blepharoplast divides; the rhizoplast splits; 

 the nucleus widens, the karyosome becoming a rod; karyosome, nucleus, and cell 

 undergo constriction. No chromosomes are seen. 



If Bartonella bacilliformis, the agent of the disease variously known as verruga 

 peruana, Oroya fever, or Carrion's disease, is not a bacterium, perhaps it may be 

 placed in or near this family. 



Order 4. Dolichocystida Delage and Herouard Traite Zool. 1 : 289 (1896). 

 Sarcosporidia Balbiani 1882. 

 Class Sarcosporidia Biitschli in Bronn Kl. u. Ord. Thierreichs 1, Abt. 1 : Inhalt 



(1882). 

 Subclass Sarcocystidca Lankester in Enc. Brit. ed. 9, 19: 855 (1885). 

 Order Sarcosporidia Doflein Protozoen 214 (1901). 

 Order Sarcocystidca Poche in Arch. Prot. 30: 245 (1913). 

 Subclass Sarcosporidia Calkins Biol. Prot. 461 (1926). 

 The characters are those of the single family and genus: 

 Family Sarcocystida [Sarcocystidae] Poche in Arch. Prot. 30: 245 (1913). 

 Sarcocystis Lankester produces the Mieschersche Schlauche, macroscopically visible 

 bodies, globular, fusiform, or filiform, of dimensions up to several millimeters, in 

 muscles of animals. The several supposed species, from mice, sheep, swine, deer, etc., 

 are not morphologically distinguishable. Miescher observed these things in mice, in 

 which they are called Sarcocystis Muris; material from swine is called S. Miescher- 

 iana. 



The visible body is a mass of cells, the whole walled by modified muscle of the 

 host. The mass originates as a single cell which divides repeatedly; the ultimate 

 division products are crescent-shaped uninucleate reproductive cells. Erdmann (1910) 

 observed the infection of epithelial cells of the gut of mice. Each infective cell grew 

 and divided into several, v\'hich made their way, or were carried, to the muscles, where 

 they gave rise to the Mieschersche Schlauche. Crawley (1914, 1916), on the other 

 hand, found the infective cells to be gametocytes. In cells of the gut epithelium of 

 the host, they may be converted as wholes into eggs, or else may give rise to numerous 

 elongate sperms. These conflicting observations could be explained by an alternation 

 of sexual and asexual generations, but the point is not established. 



