270 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



largely (listeiided and the kidneys were twice the normal size. Ovaries 

 moderately developed, but not sufficiently to account for the abuormal 

 distension. Besides the 31yxospori(lia, the kidneys showed an extensive 

 invasion of bacteria. 



Effects. — There can, Ohlmacher says, be scarcely any doubt that the 

 Mi/.rosporidia were the direct factors in the pathologic changes. Their 

 number was very great, the tubules of botli kidneys being lilled. The 

 mere mechanical efiect must have been obstruction of secretion and as 

 a remote result ascites and general <edenia. Undoubtedly the presence 

 of large numbers of bacteria (to be regarded as a secondary infection) 

 was a potent factor in hastening- death. 



Subsequent comparisons with sections of the kidneys of other toads 

 show the tubules in the first toad to have been dilated and their lining- 

 cells to have been flattened and less rich in protoplasmic material than 

 normal. The kidneys of the 3 comparatively slightly infected toads 

 collected in July, 1893, showed no macroscopic lesions. IVIicroseopically 

 no bacteria could be found. The absence of the bacteria, Dr. Ohlmacher 

 thinks, probably had as mucli weight in determining the comparative 

 innocuity as the smallness of the number of Myxosporidia (letter, 1893). 



Through the kindness of Dr. Ohlmacher I have been enabled to 

 examine his specimens, and can add the following: 



Orieniation of the .spore. — The capsules are 2, in 1 group, anterior; 

 valve-junction plane, vertical; shorter axis of spore, anteroposterior; 

 longer axis, transverse. Sporoplasm showing no evidence of a vac- 

 uole, even in iodine-stained sections. Beyond a slight median notch 

 in its iiosterior border (produced, I believe, by a slight inward, as well 

 as outward, projection of the ridge), I was not able to find any evidence 

 of sporo plasm-segmentation, and am therefore compelled to regard this 

 as an optical illusion, produced by the overlying ridge and reinforced by 

 the posterior median notch. 



This orientation necessitates the reference of this species to CJiloro- 

 myxum {Splum-ospora). From C. (8.) elegans it is distinguished by its 

 transversely elliptic outline and its dimensions. The fact of its iden- 

 tical organal distribution (renal tubules) should also be noted. 



Finally, Dr. J. B. Whinery has recently published the results of a 

 careful detailed restudy of this species. He gives the following table, 

 showing the equivalence of Ohlmacher's nomenclature with that I 

 have adopted: 



