r 



784 FRANK E. BEDDARb, 



Statements, remarking of them that they are „sehr wenig vertrauen- 

 erweckend". It seems to me however to be just possible that Walden- 

 BUKG has met with Gregariiie cysts in Lumhricus like those of Peri- 

 chaeta. 



The nature of the outer cyst raembrane in the Perichaeta-Gre- 

 garine is such that it cannot be regarded as certain that the mem- 

 brane is excreted by the parasite; it is possible that it is a patho- 

 logical formation induced by the presence of the parasite. Among the 

 true Gregarines however such formations do not appear to have been 

 met with. 



Among the Myxosporidia on the other band — for example in 

 Myxobolus müUeri, which is parasitic upon the gills of certain fishes — 

 BüTSCHLi (2, p. 592) describes the spores as being enclosed in a deli- 

 cate cyst which is forraed of a nucleated protoplasmic layer; and 

 Waldenburg, as will be seen from the extract quoted above, indicates 

 the resemblance in this particular which his supposed Gregarine cysts 

 bear to the cysts of „fish-psorosperms". 



I am not inclined to regard the parasite described in the present 

 paper as a Myxosporidian for the reason that another stage in its 

 life-history, which will presently be described, agrees with that of 

 certain Gregarines; were it not for this reason, the apparent resem- 

 blance of the cyst in the two cases would lead me to refer this 

 parasite to the Myxosporidia. 



2) Contents of Cyst. 



All the cysts that I examined were completely filled with round or 

 oval büdies (fig. 5) with a hard outline, but perfectly transparent and 

 structureless. The figure in question illustrates some of the contents 

 of a crushed cyst mounted in Glycerine. Variously sized granules of 

 this kind are found in other Gregarines. 



When a portion of the vesicula seminalis containing cysts was 

 stained in logwood and cut by the ordinary paraffine method , the 

 Contents of the cyst showed a very ditferent appearance illustrated 

 in fig. G. The greater part of the cyst contents were unstained and 

 had a very finely granulär appearance; imbedded in this were a vast 

 number of small bodies usually comma-shaped. 



In transverse sections of the cyst which had been previously 

 stained with logwood the nucleus of the parasite was frequently to be 

 observed; in several cysts there was only a siugle nucleus present 

 which is represented in fig. 6, n. The nucleus in these cases was of 



