96 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
heaps, amoebiform corpuscles of the same size with precisely similar 
granules, which corpuscles protruded processes of various form, and 
finally much larger formations, containing, simultaneously, both fine 
granules and psorospermiform structures which, fe showed 
movements similar to those of the amabe. 
Myxidium lieberkiihnii is, however, referred to the Gregarines. The 
presence of a membrane is not regarded as a character indispen- 
sable to the definition of a Gregarine, inasmuch as in the earthworm 
there exist forms possessing all the other characters of true Grega- 
rines (viz, a similar nucleus, the same form and size of granules, the 
same albuminoid substance, and the same manner of movement), and 
also other forms showing a plain but proportionately smaller nucleus, 
no demonstrable membrane, and none or only extremely fine granules. 
These forms possess amceboid movements, without, however, having the 
ability to take up into their substance foreign bodies or coloring mat- 
ters. These characters permit of their classification under no other 
group than the Gregarines. Whether they represent young stages of 
these or special species is immaterial. This much, however, is clear: 
the nondemonstration of a structureless membrane does not exclude 
them from the Gregarines. The same may be said of the failure of 
demonstration of a nucleus, as either it may exist in spite of such fail- 
ure, or it may be destroyed by the manipulation preliminary to exam- 
ination, or it may be present at some other period of the life-history. 
Further, the opinion has been several times expressed that nonnucleated 
Gregarines exist. May they not rather be amcebe? From these 
organisms they are delimited by their inability to take up into their 
substance undissolved solid particles. 
In 1863 Balbiani! expressed a decided opinion in favor of their eryp- 
togamic nature and, regarding the spore as the adult organism, assigned 
to the filaments the function of antherozoids, a view which he supple- 
mented in 1885 by the designation of the sporoplasm as a ‘“‘ female ele- 
ment.” He further considered the “ elastic ribbons” of Myxobolus ellip- 
soides comparable to the elaters of the Hquisetum spore and supposed 
that, in addition to effecting valve separation, they serve to maintain 
the contact of two individuals during what he considered a state of 
conjugation. These views he reaffirmed in 1866.° 
In 1875 Schneider? placed himself on record in opposition to the 
current theory of the close relationship between the Myxosporidia and 
the Gregarines, saying that: 
One knows that, under the name of Psorosperms, there have been united (rather 
by reason of taxonomic necessities than by the codrdination of positive data and 
sufficiently precise elements) four things, (Gregarines, Myxosporidia, Sarcosporidia 
1Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, Lvi1, pp. 157-161. 
2 Journ. de Microgr., VII, p. 278. 
3 Journ. Anat. et Physiol., 111, pp. 600-602. 
+ Archiv. de Zool. Expér., Paris, tv, pp. 548, 561, and Notes et Revue, pp. XL, XL, 
