The Microscope. 9 



field. In another instance the anterior end was split into two 

 parts Cor one-third the length of the adoral groove, so that the 

 animal appeared to be doubly proboscidate, each trunk being 

 independently movable and not at all a perceptible inconveni- 

 ence. This was not, as at first supposed, the beginning of repro- 

 ductive division, as that process was subsequently observed to 

 take place by the comparatively rare oblique transverse fission. 

 Another individual had lost a segment like a wedge of pie, from 

 the posterior tip of the body, and was seemingly as lively and 

 voracious as ever. Some evenings later two specimens of Lox- 

 odes were captured malformed as shown in Fig. 3, where the 

 whole frontal border had disappeared for one-half the length of 

 the pharyngeal tube, which projected for that distance beyond 

 what was. then the anterior margin. They were apparently as 

 active as normal specimens. 



Ileonema dispar (Fig. 4), which the writer described with 

 the precedings in the '"American Journal of Science" is also a 

 lover of the debris at the . _, bottom of the pool, and is 



subject to an accident JgU whose cause is usually visi- 

 ble. The remarkable trail- i ^Wf. ing, non-vibratile flagel- 

 lum at the anterior ex- ' ^||E tremity is formed of a thick, 

 cord -like basal portion, and j$*%C_ a distal filiform prolonga- 

 tion. The extreme tip of ^"^*j|p the latter part seems to 

 have great affinity for glass. ^|j}|p. It scarcely ever touches t he 

 slide without adhering so C%^$C firmly that the owner is at 

 once a prisoner. Escape is T^V made without delay, but at 

 the expense of the thread- like part of the flagellum, 



Fig. 4. 



the infusorian in pulling loose even occasionally leaving a por- 

 tion of the cord-like base, the wound soon healing by the form- 

 ation of a bulbous enlargement. 



Some time ago considerable interest was manifested when 

 Mr. M. II. Robson, in " Science Gossip 1 '' for October, 1S79, an- 

 nounced his discovery of Euglena viridis with a bulbed flagel- 

 lum, and numerous explanatory theories were offered. A bulb- 

 ous extremity to a normally filiform flagellum is by no means 

 rare. I have witnessed it in many genera, and the observations 

 lead me to conclude that the condition is a sign of injury, a 

 symptom of disease, or of discomfort induced by uncongenial 



