308 SUMMARY OF CUIIRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



genie Entammba histolytica, tue quite harmless E. coli, and a small form 

 very like Amceba Umax, all inhabiting the large intestine and cfecum. . 

 To 'the group of the Mastigophora belong three common Flagellates :— - 

 (1) Lamblia intestinaUs, from the upper part of the small intestine, with 

 the greatest claim to being pathogenic ; (2) Tetramitus mesniJi, supposed 

 to give rise to intestinal irritation followed by diarrhoea ; and (3) 

 Trichomonas intestinaUs, generally regarded as harmless. The two 

 latter Flagellates inhabit chiefly the large intestine and cjecum, and 

 multiply actively if the intestine is deranged. Some other Flagellates, 

 species of Bodo, Gercomonas and Proicazehia, each with two flagella, are 

 less frequently met with. They occur especially in diarrhoeic conditions. 

 Several Ciliates occur, but the large Balantidium coli, from the large 

 intestine, is the only common one. Pigs are generally infected with this 

 Ciliate, which, escaping from them in the encysted condition, gains 

 entrance to the human intestine, and by actual invasion of the wall of 

 the large intestine gives rise to the serious condition knowu as balan- 

 tidial dysentery. The author describes these forms, and shows how 

 they may be most readily identified. 



Minchinia : a Haplosporidian.* — Helen L. M. Pixell-Goodrich 

 discusses this parasite found by Lankester in 1885 in the liver of 

 Chiton and called Klossia chitonis. Tt was afterwards referred by 

 Labbe (1896) to a new genus Minchinia, and ranked among the 

 Coccidia. The author has studied it in Craspedochilus cinereus horn 

 near Plymouth; it was not found in Acanthochites {Chiton) fascicularis, 

 stated by Labbe to be the host at Roscoff. The genus is shown to 

 belong to the Haplosporidia. Its life-history in Chiton consists of two 

 stages, a trophic and a sporogonic. Daring the trophic stage a multi- 

 nucleate individual divides by a process of plasmotomy. During the 

 sporogonic stage a plasmodium becomes encysted and forms gametes. 

 These fuse in pairs (autogamy ?) to form zygotes. The zygote breaks 

 into four sporoblasts, each of which acquires an external membrane 

 drawn out into a tiiil at each end, and later a thick chitinous coat 

 immediately inside the membranous one. Crabs, blennies, and starfishes 

 eat Chiton,' but the spores of Minchinia pass through unchanged and are 

 in this way disseminated. The spores do not seem to open in the gut 

 of Chiton. 



New Myxosporidian Genus.f — J. S. Dunkerly describes Agarella 

 gracilis g. et sp. n, a myxosporidian belonging to the family Chloro- 

 myxidfe, beside CMoromyxnm. It was found in the testis of Lepiclo- 

 sir en paradoxa, the South American lung-fish. The spores differ from 

 those of Chloromyxum in being elongate, slightly flattened in the 

 sutural plane, and in possessing a long bifid tail composed of an 

 elongation of each spore valve posteriorly. They resemble those of 

 Henneguya, but have four polar capsules — the characteristic mark of 

 Chloromyxidaj. The steps of the process of myxosporidian spore- 



* Proc. Zool. Soc, 1915, pp. 445-57 (2 pis.). 



t Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, xix. (1915) pp. 213-9 (1 pi. and 1 fig.). 



