ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 313 



is a remarkable form with eight flagella, and with a sharp distinction 

 between an anterior " head " region (with a sort of cupuhform sucker) 

 and a flattened vibratile "tail" region. It seems to be different from 

 G. agiJis. Both are related to Lamblia intestinaUs. 



Morphology of Trypanosomes.* — H. G. PHmmer points out that it 

 is impossible at present to insist that any differentiation based solely upon 

 microscopical observations should be sufficient in the case of organisms 

 so much alike as the Trypan osomata. Our methods and observations are 

 neither uniform nor good enough to enable us to make, at the present 

 time, by the microscopical method alone, a sufficient differentiation. 

 Until all observers use the finer zoological methods of fixation, etc. (the 

 author suggests a method) instead of the barbarous one of drying blood 

 films at present almost exclusively in use, we cannot look for much 

 certainty in the microscopical differentiation of very similar organisms. 

 This must be supplemented by observing the differences in their patho- 

 genic action. Nor must we forget the variability of organisms in the 

 same species of animals in the same country, and their still greater 

 variability in different animals in the same and in other countries. 



Effects on Rats of Trypanosomata of Gambia Fever and of Sleeping 

 Sickness. t — -H. G-. Plimmer records the results of 211 experiments. 

 These go to show that each of the two strains of Trypanosomata has pro- 

 duced two different effects in the same class of animals under conditions 

 of which we at present know nothing ; and that the Trypanosomata found 

 in these two types of disease are one and the same organism, modified 

 iby passage from man through monkeys to rats, and perhaps in the 

 ;author's strains by transplantation into animals of, and in, another 

 ■country. The view that Gambia fever and sleeping sickness are two 

 distinct diseases cannot longer be maintained. 



Notes on Trypanosomata. — A. Bettencourt and C. Franca % describe 

 a new Trypanosome, T. pestanai, from the badger. The same observers§ 

 record the occurrence of T. cuniculi Blanchard in Portugal. They 

 review || the literature and clear up the synonymy of the Trypanosome 

 of bats, T. vespertilionis Battaglia, 1901, and describe its appearance, 

 both hving and in preparations. C. Franca and M. Athias f give an 

 historical account of the Trypanosome parasites of Rana esculenta, pro- 

 posing for the two first known forms the nomenclature Trypanosoma 

 loricatum or costatwn Mayer, and Trypanosoma rotatorium Mayer. These 

 are redescribed, as also T. inopinatum Ed. et Et. Sargent ; T. undulans 

 sp. n ; T. elegans sp. n. 



A. de Magalhaes ** gives an account of the treatment of rats infected 

 with T. gambiense by means of arsenic acid and trypan-red. 



Malaria Parasites in Attica and Boeotia.ft — J. Cardamatis and 

 L. Diamesis give an account of a malaria epidemic in these regions in 



* Proc. Roy. Soc, Series B, Ixxix. No. B 529 (1907) pp. 99 and 102. 

 t Tom. cit., pp. 95-102. 



t Arch. lust. Roy. de Bacteriologie, Camara Pestana, i. (1906) pp. 73-6 (1 pi.) 

 § Tom. cit., pp. 167-70. ,; Tom. cit., pp. 187-94. 



^ Tom. cit., pp 127-66 (2 pis.). ** Tom. cit., 171-6. 



tt Centralbl. Bakt. Parasitenk., xlii. (1906) pp. 527-32 (1 pi.). 



June lUth, 1907 Y 



