136 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Lieberkiihii.^ On the contrary, both his descriptions and fignres (which 

 show spores, apparent]}^ of two different species, containing falciform 

 corpnscles) justify the opposite conclusion. And Lankester^ distinctly 

 affirms its coccidian nature. 



Possibly, Pfeiffer^ saj^s, a form reported by Kunstler and Pitres'' 

 from a pleural exudate of man is perhaps referable here. But from their 

 descriptions and figure it is hard to see how by any possibility it could 

 belong to the Myxosporidia. The smallest spores are 18 ix " long" and 

 the largest 100 ja. In such large spores it is inconceivable that the cap- 

 sules could be missed, and Kunstler and Pitres appear to regard it as 

 coccidian. 



Further, Pfeiffer says: 



Also relations exist with a form foiiiid in chickens by Arloing and Tripier. 



The following data will suffice for its rejection: 



Arloing and Tripier^ tell us that they found oval bodies with granular 

 contents, a clear central nucleus, and a sort of "button" at each extrem- 

 ity of the longer diameter. These bodies measure 500 to 550 jj. (400 to 

 450 //, excluding the " buttons ") in length, and 200 to 220 // in breadth. 

 Balbiani, from an examination of hardened specimens, reserved his 

 opinion, but rather believed them to be " psorosperms." In spite of 

 and after this, the authors tell us that they identified these oval bodies 

 by finding identical bodies in the oviduct of a tvorm found imbedded in 

 the same situation (cesophageal mucosa) ; in other words, they are the 

 ova of a worm. It is hardly necessary to go further than their dimen- 

 sions to exclude them from the possibility of being niyxosporidian spores. 

 It might, however, be added, that Balbiani would certainly have noted 

 in his Logons sur Ics Sporozoaires (1884) such an unprecedented anom- 

 aly as the occurrence of a myxosporidian in a bird. 



I cannot, perhaps, better place the following remarks made by M. 

 Arnuind in the way of discussion of Arloing and Tripier's paper. M. 

 Armand, in concert with Balbiani, undertook, in 1873, the inoculations 

 of "psorosperms" both in warm and in coldblooded animals. The 

 attempt succeeded, and several pieces showing the proliferation and 

 modifications of these bodies transported into organisms very different 

 from their normal habitat were obtained, and preserved in the collec- 

 tion of the Laboratory of General Physiology of the Jardin des Plantes. 

 As the subsequent myxosporidian literature is silent upon this point, 

 it is probably safe to i^resume either that in this case "psorosperms" 

 did not mean Myxosporidia, or, if it did, that the myxosporidian branch 

 of the work proved barren of results. 



' Miiller's Archiv., 1854, pp. 1-5, pi. i, figs. 1-19. 



^Encyclop. Britan., 9 ed., xix, 1885, p. 855. 



3 Die Protozoeu als Krankheitserreger, 1 ed., 1890, p. 49; 2 ed., 1891, p. 135. 



'' Suv nne psorospermie trouv^e dans une liunienr pleuritique; Journ. de Microgr., 

 1884, Yin, pp. 469-474, 520-526, pi. 11, figs. 1-15; pi. 12, figs. 1-3. 



■"'Lesions organiques de nature parasitaire cliez le poulet; Compt. Reud. Assoc, 

 frans. rAvanc. Sci., 1874, 2d (Lyons) Sess., i)p. 810-814. 



