TRIOHOMASTIX SEEPENTIS. 



455 



ments of tlie anterior flagella are meanwliile becoming slower, 

 and they very frequently become completely fused into a 

 single finger-like process [text. -fig. 2, 6], which continues to 

 contract in the same direction as did the flagella. This state 

 may continue for hours, or even days. The axial rod disap- 

 pears before long, and finally the whole organism becomes 

 an amoeboid mass of protoplasm [text.-fig. 2, c] . In this 

 condition no movement away from the original position takes 

 place, the protoplasm being simply thrust out and then 

 rapidly withdrawn. Undulating movements, involving the 



Text-fig. 2. 



whole amoeba, frequently and rapidly occur. The creature 

 remains in this condition sometimes for days. Before death 

 the movements become slower, and finally cease. The 

 animal then becomes rounded off, and, after a varying 

 period of time, disintegrates. Not uncommonly two or 

 more creatures, degenerating side by side, run together 

 and fuse before death. This is even more remarkable in 

 the case of the degenerate forms which attempt to divide. 

 All the stages of division up to that corresponding with 

 fig. 7, PL 27, may be gone through, when suddenly both 

 individuals, instead of separating, become amoeboid and 

 fuse. Death follows, as in the case of the ordinary amoeboid 

 forms. In all cases disintegration of the nucleus appears to 

 occur before that of the cytoplasm. 



