304: M. A. Schneider on Ophryocyslis Butsclilii. 



of these processes serve to attach it to the surface of the cells 

 which line the interior of the Malpighian vessels. 



In this naked hody, with expansions which are variable in 

 form, volume, and situation, there are, especially in large 

 individuals, a number of refractive granules, which often ex- 

 tend even into the most considerable processes, and generally 

 present a complete obstacle to the examination of the other 

 element of the contents, the nucleus or the nuclei. In very 

 young specimens, on the contrary, the nucleus shows itself 

 very easily, and this is also the case in the large individuals 

 when, as happens, the nuclei are at the base of the expan- 

 sions. Before speaking at greater length of the nucleus I 

 will remark that I have never been able to distinguish two 

 distinct zones in tlie body, ectoplasm and endoplasm, as is 

 the case in the Myxosporidia ; and the expansions are so little 

 the aflfair of a pure ectoplasm that, as has been ascertained, 

 the granules often pass into their trunk. I may add further 

 tliat there are never vacuoles of any kind. 



It is especially in specimens fixed with osmic acid, stained 

 with picrocarmine, rendered transparent with oil of cloves, and 

 mounted in balsam, that the investigation of the nuclei gives 

 satisfactory results. All the figures in simple outline have 

 been drawn from such objects, and the preparations remain to 

 guarantee the truth of the images. As may be seen by an 

 inspection of the figures, the number of nuclei varies. It is 

 often one, two, or three, frequently also four, five, six, or even 

 ten. By this peculiarity, again, Ophryocystis resembles the 

 Myxosporidia, although distantly ; in the latter the number 

 of nuclei is considerable, unlimited, but the size of the crea- 

 ture is also superior. The reader will also not fail to re- 

 member that in certain Amoebae, such as Amaba Blaltoe'^^ the 

 number of nuclei often rises to the number cited in the first 

 case. 



If in the number of nuclei the analogy is rather with the 

 Amcebffi such as Atnoeba Blatke, it is rather with the Myxo- 

 sporidia in their structure. Each of these nuclei, in fact, is 

 of a regularly spherical form, and contains at its centre a 

 nucleolus, which fixes the colouring-material more energeti- 

 cally. In certain cases the nucleolus is double, a peculiarity 

 which, in conjunction with the variability in the number of 

 nuclei, would lead us to assume a division of nuclei. 1 have 

 therefore endeavoured to distinguish traces of this division in 

 my preparations, but have found none sufficiently clear to 

 exclude the idea of an injury in preparation, of a deforma- 



* O. Biitsclili, " Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Flag-ellateu iind einigen 

 ■verwiindtpn Organismon,'" Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. Bd. xxx. (1878), p. 20o, 



