62 PROFESSOR E. RAY LANRESTER. 



the Frog^s hidney toere nothing m,ore nor less than our Drepani- 

 dinm ranarum.. It can be uo difficult matter to decide this 

 point by an investigation of the Trog's kidney. Further^ it is 

 not improbable that Elmer's Coccidium from the intestine of the 

 Prog is related to the same life-cycle^ and is, in fact, the " Gre- 

 garina-phase " or " Coccidium-phase " of the same organism 

 which divides first of all so as to form Lieberkuhn's psorosperms 

 of the Frog's kidney, whilst these in their turn, give exit to the 

 Drepanidium-phase observed in the Frog's blood and spleen. 



At the same time it is possible, from what Lieberkiihn ob- 

 served, that the Gregarina which produces his naviculoid spores 

 is to be found in the kidney also. 



Dr. Gaule's Vieivs as to the nature of Drepan'idlum. — Dr. 

 Gaule does not consider Drepanidium to be a parasitic organism, 

 but the product of a mysterious metamorphosis of the cells of 

 the Frog's blood and other tissues. 



He has published a number of observations as to the abun- 

 dance of these parasites at various seasons of the year and in 

 different individuals, and as to their occurrence in the spleen, 

 liver, and pancreas. None of these observations are opposed to 

 the view that Drepanidium is a parasite, but, on the contrary, 

 are favourable to it. Nevertheless, the notion that Drepanidium 

 is a parasite is not seriously entertained by Dr. Gaule at any 

 point in his relation of his observations and experiments; on the 

 contrary, he takes from the first the attitude of one astonished 

 by the phenomena he is describing, and endeavours to account 

 for them quite irrelevantly by suggestions of new and unsuspected 

 physiological processes, by which the protoplasmic units of a 

 complex organism such as the Frog may be converted into forms 

 such as these "Wiirmschen," endowed with a quasi- vitality. Dr. 

 Gaule's speculations appear to me to be unlikely to commend 

 themselves in any way to those who are instructed not only in 

 the methods of the physiological laboratory, but also in the wider 

 range of phenomena investigated by students of animal and 

 vegetable morphology. Nevertheless they have, on their first 

 appearance, excited considerable interest, which has been largely 

 due to misapprehension, caused by the absence of illustrative 

 drawings from Dr. Gaule's first memoir. When the facts are 

 fully placed before physiologists, the interest excited by Dr. 

 Gaule will give place to regret that speculations so obviously 

 the result of inadequate information should emanate from the 

 celebrated laboratory of Leipzig. 



Some of the chief observations due to Dr. Gaule as regards 

 Drepanidium are most directly favorable to the view that these 

 minute sausage-like bodies are independent parasitic organisms. 

 I will cite only the following : 



