Various phases op hjimamcebid.-e. 587 



experiment have both been brought to bear on the question 

 as to whether an oomorphous cell can act as fertiliser to 

 another^ and as to whether an andromorphous cell (a sperma- 

 tozoon) can be made to develop a new individual if supplied 

 with a cell body but without the addition of the nuclear 

 matter of an oomorphous cell. It seems to me that we have 

 in the case of the spermatomorphous or andromorphous 

 blasts or "young" of the malaria parasite a distinct proof 

 that the spermatozoon is, so far as its essential nature is con- 

 ceruedj capable of acting the part of the solely sufficient 

 germ in a parthenogenetic reproduction or multiplication ; 

 and that it is, therefore, not of the essence of " solely suffi- 

 cient germs " that they should be egg-cells or oomorphous. 

 At any rate, we have, I think, in the blasts or filiform young 

 of the malaria parasite an altogether exceptional case of 

 elements of the male form carrying on without acting as 

 fertilisers, but as " solely sufficient,^' the life of the species. 

 We have here, indeed, a parthenogenesis by means of male 

 elements. The parthenogenesis hitherto known in animals 

 is " gynaecocratic ;" that exhibited by the " blasts " of the 

 HsemamoebidEe is ^' androcratic." 



Probably some instances among the Protophyta of the fis- 

 sion and multiplication of flagellate " zoospores " may be 

 placed in the same category of " androcratic partheno- 

 genesis." For instance, the " coccus forms " of Schizophyta 

 are oomorphous, and their multiplication without fertilisa- 

 tion is a " gyneecocratic parthenogenesis." But the bi- 

 flagellate bacillus form should perhaps be regarded as an 

 andromorphous cell, and its multiplication by fission is 

 androcratic parthenogenesis. There is not, however, in this 

 case the same reason for regarding the flagellate cell as 

 really identical with a spermatozoid or microgamete as there 

 is in the case of the Haamamoebidas ; for in the latter it is not 

 only the form of the cell, but its mode of development by 

 centrifugal proliferation and the production of a " blasto- 

 phore " which characterises the " blasts " as truly male cells. 



I may remind the reader in conclusion that the word 



VOL. 43, PART 3. — NEW SERIES. S S 



