o 



92 SUMMARY OF CQRRENT IlESEARCHES RELATING TO 



the compensating advantages of the large nnmbers easily obtained, the 

 occnrrence of encysted, amoeboid, and flagellate forms, and of both 

 exogenons and endogenous budding, and the ease and certainty of 

 securing cultures and making slides of the various stages. The nutrient 

 fluid used was a mixture of 50 grm. each of lettuce-leaves, horse-manure, 

 soda cracker, and garden soil, boiled for half-an-bour in 1 litre of tap- 

 water. The fluid is sterilized for half-an-hour, and when thoroughly cool 

 is shaken up with a little soil. On floating cover-glasses the amoebie 

 adhere in astounding numbers. The conditions which stimulate en- 

 flagellation are apparently access of oxygen and new food supply. 



New Species of Licnophora.* — A. P. 1 Austin describes Liniophora 

 bullae sp. n., which he found in JUilla hydralis near Roscofl". Like other 

 representatives of the genus, whose species have been reported from 

 Nudibranchs, Echinoderms, and other types, L. bullae is a large Ciliate, 

 divided into a disk of attachment, a narrow neck, and the body proper. 

 The ventral surface of the body proper is flattened or slightly hollowed 

 out, the dorsal surface is convex. At the lower end of the ventral surface 

 there is an oval cytostome, surrounded by a crown of numerous powerful 

 cilia. The attaching disk is rounded or cordate, hollowed out like a cup, 

 and surrounded in typical forms with four whorls of cilia, and outside 

 these a fine circular membrane or velum. The disk is sometimes 

 simplified by the absence of the velum and one or more of the ciliated 

 wreaths. The neck seems to be contractile, and bears on one side a 

 delicate membrauella. The body contains Diatoms and other Alg^e, on 

 which the animal feeds. The micronucleus is small and spherical. The 

 macronucleus consists of a large moniliform chain, or more frequently of 

 numerous distinct j^ieces. There is an exceedingly well-developed system 

 of intracellular fibrils, similar to that described by Miss Stevens in 

 another form from a Holothurian. It may be skeletal, but it is probably 

 contractile and elastic. 



Inheritance of Abnormalities in Paramecium.! — R. J. Stocking 

 publishes the results of an experimental study of the inheritance of 

 abnormalities in Paramecium after conjugation. The principal points 

 studied were : The origin and nature of abnormalities j their relation to 

 conjugation ; their inheritance and variation in uniparental reproduc- 

 tion ; how precisely inheritance occurs ; whether there are variations 

 of kind and degree of almormality, and whether these variations are 

 inherited ; whether abnormal stocks multiplying asexually can be 

 modified in their hereditary characteristics ; and the relation of abnor- 

 malities to bi-parental inheritance, and to survival. A large proportion 

 (from 36 to 81 p.c.) of the progeny of exconjugants of P. caudatum 

 show abnormalities frequently and constantly. Some lines show no 

 abnormalities, others a small proportion of abnormal individuals, and 

 in a few abnormality is universal. The tendency to abnormality is 

 transmitted in fission : in one case there was inheritance of a specific 

 type carried through two or three generations. In a very large pro- 



* Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xl. (1915) pp. 179-84 (3 figs.). 

 t Journ. Exper. Zool. xix. (1915) pp. 387-450 (20 figs.). 



