2 6 BIBLIOGRA PH V. 



Prothelminthen,' published respectively in the years 1850, 1865, and 

 1866. These last-named contributions constitute practically a synopsis, 

 with accompanying diagnoses, of all the infusorial forms then known, 

 exclusive of the Vorticellidae and Stentoridre, the chief value of which 

 undoubtedly depends upon their very complete bibliographic references. 

 In no case does Diesing appear to have personally acquainted himself with 

 even a single example of the numerous types epitomized, his diagnoses 

 being framed entirely upon the descriptions given by their original 

 discoverers, and whose errata are also necessarily reproduced. Thus, 

 accepting the dictum of Ehrenberg, all the Flagellata are erroneously 

 represented as possessing a distinct oral aperture, Volvox, Pandcrina, and 

 other undoubted mouthless Phytozoa even being included in the category. 

 Viewed as a whole, Diesing divides his so-called order of the Prothelmintha 

 into the two sub-orders of the Mastigophora and Amastiga, the same 

 corresponding respectively, exclusive of exceptions above named, with the 

 Flagellate and Ciliate divisions of the Infusoria first instituted by Von 

 Siebold. The Flagellata, or Mastigophora, are further separated by him 

 into the two sections of the Atrichosomata and Trichosomata, the latter 

 group including only the Peridinidae and other allied forms possessing 

 cilia in addition to the characteristic flagella, and therefore corresponding 

 with the order of the Cilio-Flagellata as comprehended in this volume. 

 The two sectional titles of the Holotricha and Hypotricha introduced by 

 Stein are made by this author to include all his recognized representatives 

 of the Amastiga or Ciliata. A considerable number of new generic names, 

 established some with, and some without, substantial grounds, were, as 

 hereafter frequently attested to, founded by Diesing on various of the older 

 specific forms. 



Here mention may be most appropriately made of the one complete 

 book devoted to the organization of the Infusoria that had so far, or has 

 since up to the publication of this present volume, issued from the British 

 press. This work, 'A History of the Infusoria,' by Andrew Pritchard, 

 which in the year 1861 arrived at its fourth enlarged and revised edition, 

 the first appearing in the year 1834, can, however, in no way be cited as an 

 independent treatise, it constituting merely an excellent and abbreviated 

 transcript of the technical descriptions of all so-called infusorial forms 

 published up to the year 1858, and included chiefly in the works of 

 Ehrenberg, Perty, and Dujardin. The views of these and other contem- 

 poraneous authorities are fully enunciated, and the whole series of forms 

 described made to amalgamate with the system of classification adopted 

 by Ehrenberg in his ' Die Infusionsthierchen.' No original views, no trace 

 of original research, nor any record of newly discovered species, are con- 

 tained in this volume, which must therefore be considered rather as a 

 compilation than as an independent work. As such, and in connection Mith 

 the state of our knowledge at that time, its utility was unquestionable, 

 and more especially to the general working microscopist, since its scope, 



