M. A. Schneider on Ophryocjstis Blitdchlii. 305 



tion, and I prefer to leave the matter in abeyance. The advo- 

 cates of Plasmodium can bring it in here if they please and 

 agaricize over the whole. What may also enable them to 

 plasmodiate in this case is, that the size of all these nuclei 

 seems to be nearly the same. This therefore is a point which 

 will require a serious examination from all those who may 

 hereafter meet vvith Ophryocystis ButschUi. 



I admit that in order to pass from these states to the following 

 the transition is wanting, and this is the difhculty that hampers 

 me. There can be no doubt that the state of cyst and that of 

 spore are posterior to the preceding states. Cysts with their 

 spores are shown, for example, in figures 29-35. I'heir form, 

 their dimensions, and the equatorial line which they present 

 do not alloAV us to mistake them. It will be admitted, then, 

 that figures 28, 18, and 16 show the first beginnings of eii- 

 cystment. But when these stages are rendered transparent 

 we never find more than two nuclei, one in each half; and 

 when we examine forms like that shown in fig. 27, which 

 seem destined to furnish the cysts by their conjugation with 

 another of the same kind, we never find in them more than 

 one nucleus. After this what becomes of the amoeboid stages 

 with multiple nuclei if they are not destined to be encysted? 

 and how can they be reserved for encystment when out of my 

 two slides, each containing more than 100 Ophryocystes^ I 

 have never seen a young cyst with more than two nuclei ? 

 It is very true that the older cysts (figs. 29 and 23) contain 

 six nuclei ; but, in the first place, it can be proved that these 

 cysts are older, and, in the second place, these six nuclei are 

 very inferior in size to those of the amoeboid forms in question, 

 so that, leaving out of consideration the age of the cyst, which 

 is decisive, we cannot even derive these cysts directly from 

 the amoeboid states with multiple nuclei. The question recurs : 

 What fate awaits these amoeboid stages? This is espe- 

 cially a matter for investigation. The imagination wdiich 

 might at once derive them from a fusion of several individuals 

 into a Plasmodium, could with no more trouble destroy its 

 work, and say that, when the period of reproduction arrives, the 

 plasmodial mass sj>lits up into fragments with a single nucleus j 

 but this mode of stopping up the gaps of observation seems 

 to me to prepare cruel decejitions for those who practise it, 

 and the best plan is to appeal from our ignorance to future 

 investigations. 



Expressly reserving this point, then, I shall continue with 

 the description of the states which seem to me to be directly 

 coruiected with reproduction by spores. 



It appears to me that the [jrelude to this reproduction is a 



