MORPHOLOCxY 63 



therus, Ichthyophthirius, Didinium, and Balantidium, and found 

 that there are numerous fibrils, each of which originates in the kine- 

 tosome of a cilium and takes a transverse or oblique course through 

 the endoplasm, ending in a kinetosome located on the other side of 

 the body. He further noted that the cytopharynx and nucleus are 

 also connected with these fibrils, ten Kate suggested morphonemes 

 for them, since he believed that the majority were form-retaining 

 fibrils. 



The well-coordinated movement of cilia in the ciliate has long 

 been recognized, but it was Sharp (1914) who definitely showed that 

 this ciliary coordination is made possible by a certain fibrillar system 

 which he discovered in Epidinium (Diplodinium) ecaudatum (Fig. 

 16). Sharp recognized in this ciliate a complicated fibrillar system 

 connecting all the motor organellae of the cytostomal region, and 

 thinking that it was "probably nervous in function," as its size, ar- 

 rangement and location did not suggest supporting or contractile 

 function, he gave the name neuromotor apparatus to the whole 

 system. This apparatus consists of a central motor mass, the 

 motorium (which is stained red with Zenker fixation and modified 

 Mallory's connective tissue staining), located in the ectoplasm just 

 above the base of the left skeletal area, from which definite strands 

 radiate: namely, one to the roots of the dorsal membranellae (a 

 dorsal motor strand) ; one to the roots of the adoral membranellae 

 (a ventral motor strand); one to the cytopharynx (a circum-oeso- 

 phageal ring and oesophageal fibers) ; and several strands into the 

 ectoplasm of the operculum (opercular fibers). A similar apparatus 

 has since been observed in many other ciliates: Euplotes (Yocom; 

 Taylor), Balantiduum (McDonald), Paramecium (Rees; Brown; 

 Lund), Tintinnopsis (Campbell), Boveria (Pickard), Dileptus 

 (Visscher), Chlamydodon (MacDougall), Entorhipidium and Le- 

 chriopyla (Lynch), Eupoterion (MacLennan and Connell), Metopus 

 (Lucas), Troglodytella (Swezey), Oxytricha (Lund), Ancistruma and 

 Conchophthirus (Kidder), etc. Ciliate fibrillar systems (Taylor, 

 1941). 



Euplotes, a common free-living hypotrichous ciliate, has been 

 known for nearly 60 years to possess definite fibrils connecting the 

 anal cirri with the anterior part of the body. Engelmann suggested 

 that their function was more or less nervelike, while others main- 

 tained that they were supporting or contracting in function. Yocom 

 (1918) traced the fibrils to the motorium, a very small bilobed body 

 (about 8/x by 2ju) located close to the right anterior corner of the 

 triangular cytostome (Fig. 17, m). Joining with its left end are five 



