No. I.] FILOSE ACTIVITY IN METAZOAN EGGS. 13 



Conclusions. 



Filose activities like those of the finer pseudopodial threads 

 of certain Protozoa were seen in the living eggs of Metazoa, 

 in Echinodermata, Annelida, Mollusca, and Nemertina. Study 

 of preserved material makes most probable their existence in 

 Amphioxus and quite probable their existence in Amphibia. 

 Members of other great groups have not as yet been examined 

 from this point of view.^ 



Such filose filaments connect the cells in the eggs and larvae 

 of Echinodermata; filaments that are most probably of this 

 nature connect the blastomeres of Amphioxus; filaments prob- 

 ably filose connect the cells in eggs and larvae of Amphibia. 



Wherever found, filose connecting filaments may be assumed 

 to have the importance ascribed to them on their first discovery 

 in the echinoderms, and to furnish a medium for coordinating 

 the activities of parts of the embryo. 



Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 

 January 29, 1S9S. 



like lines seen by him on a polar body of Anodonta in 1873 {Archiv. f. mikr. 

 Anat., Bd. x) and the filose phenomena of Echinodermata as described by G. F. 

 Andrews seems to me probably correct. 



1 However, at this later date, March 7, I am able to state that the cleaving 

 eggs of a green Hydra have remarkable ectosarcal displays and some interconnec- 

 tion of cells by filose activities; this in addition to the gross pseudopodia 

 described by Kleinenberg. 



