4G8 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [VoI. 



X. 



projection and tlic flagellum at the niari^in of the broad end 

 continued to move (the appearance is represented at fig. 2.) 



and were evident after uiotiou had ceased. This would favor 

 the view that these processes were '• cilia.'' and not merely tem- 

 porary exteusions of the protoplasm, though the remarkable 

 manner in which the cilia were extended and retracted shows 

 that they were not similar iu all respects to the cilia of Infusoria 

 or of various animal cells. Professor Lankester speaks of it as 

 "a mouthless infusoriaii, closely allied to Opaliuidee, from which, 

 however, it differs essentially, as well as from Infusoria ciliata 

 generally in possessing no cilia." Gruby described it as a para- 

 sitic entozoon, while Siebold ^'' states tliat it is not an indepen- 

 dent organism, but simply an undulating membrane swiming 

 freely. Dr. Gaule f has advancad some rather startling views 

 concerning this little body which he believes originates in, or is a 

 transformation of a colorless blood cospuscle. He states that on 

 the warm stage the process of conversion of the white blood cor- 

 puscle into the Trypanosoma may be readily followed and takes 

 place by the development at one margin of a vibratile cilium and 

 a rapidly undulating membrane. He recognized four or five 

 types of these transformed blood corpuscles and calls them 

 •' Kymatocytes.'" They may return to their original corpui?cular 

 condition. £ have tried to follow these observations of Gaule 

 but without success and adhere to the opinion that we have to 

 deal here with a minute parasite, the affinities and life history of 

 which have yet to be worked out. They were not abundant in 

 the blood of my frogs and were only met with in two. I have 

 not found them tliis season in any of the frogs in my tanks. 



This session my attention was called by a member of my His- 

 tology class to what he thought wa.s a peculiarly elongated white 

 corpuscle in the frog's blood, but which I recognized as another 



Micrographic Dictionary — Undulating Membranes, 

 t Arch. f. Anat. u. Physiol. (Phy. Abt.) 1880. 



