H.-M. WOODCOCK 17 



seen to consist of a mass of granules, I do not consider that this is in any 

 sensé a store of reserve food-materïal. It is not made use of in any way 

 by the daughter-individuals. I think it is purely an adaptation to mul- 

 tiplication witLin a cyst. It must be remembered that thèse cysts are 

 not resting, résistant cysts, but for multiplication in the same médium 

 and under the same conditions in which the Flagellate at the moment 

 happens to be. There is no altération in the toxicity of the environ- 

 ment, no development of fresh ferments to dissolve the cyst-membrane. 

 as when résistant cysts are placed in fresh médium (or become moistened 

 with fresh water). There must be some other means of causing the rup- 

 ture of the cyst-membrane. As indicated in my paper, I consider that 

 when the formation of the daughter-individuals is completed and the 

 granular mass eut off from the living protoplasm, it is able suddenly to 

 absorb water from the surrounding médium, a large proportion of the 

 mass being at the same time dissolved, and the expansion produced by 

 this intake of water bursts the cyst. I generally noted that, immedia- 

 tely before libération, the whole contents of the cyst seem to swell up 

 and the outlines of the individuals become momentarily indistinct. 



I am quite unable to agrée with Alexeiefï's suggestion that Spiro- 

 monas may perhaps be regarded as an intermediate or transitional form 

 between the Bacteria and the Flagellâtes. In my opinion it is a true 

 Flagellate and has no doser relationship to Bacteria than has any other 

 Protomastigine Flagellate. In the first place — and, perhaps, the most 

 important point — the flagella are typical Flagellate flagella, and not 

 in the least comparable with bacterial flagella (or cilia). They are long, 

 conspicuous in life, and stamable by the usual cytological methods : 

 moreover, they do originate from a blepharoplast (cf, my figs. 20-25, 

 pi. 27, 1. c. from Giemsa stained sniears). (In préparations st<ained with 

 iron-haematoxylin, the blepharoplast cannot by any means always be 

 detected in connection with the délicate flagella of thèse minute Flagel- 

 lâtes.) In ail thèse characters, the flagella of Spiromonas differ from 

 those of Spirdla. 



Again, the body is not of fixed, rigid shape. While it is not amoe- 

 boid, or « metabolic » as in the case of certain coprozoic forms (e. g. 

 Cercomonas, Monas), it nevertheless alters in shape decidedly as it grows, 

 becoming, as I described, ovoid or bean-like. There is no resemblance 

 between the mode of increase in size hère and that in the case of Bacteria. 

 Further, the nucleus is a definitely constituted organella. Its diiïe- 



NoTES ET Revue. — T. 60. — N» l. B. 



