96 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



heaps, amoebiform corpuscles of the same size with precisely similar 

 graimk's, which corpuscles protruded i^roccsses of various form, and 

 liimlly much larger lormations, containing, simultaneously, both hue 

 gjanules and psorospermiform structures which, moreover, showed 

 movements similar to those of the amoibiie. 



Miixidium VwherlcHlinU is, however, referred to the Gregarines. The 

 presence of a membrane is not regarded as a character indispen- 

 sable to the definition of a Gregarine, inasmuch as in the earthworm 

 there exist forms possessing all the otlier characters of true Grega- 

 rines (viz, a similar nucleus, the same form and size of granules, the 

 same albuminoid substance, and the same manner of movement), and 

 also othei' forms sliowiiig a i)lain but i)roi)ortionately smalkn* nucleus, 

 no demonstrable nuMiibrane, and none or only extremely fine granules. 

 These forms possess amoeboid movements, without, however, having the 

 ability to take up into their substance foreign bodies or coloring mat- 

 ters. Tliese cliaracters permit of their classification under no other 

 group than the Gregarines. Whether they represent young stages of 

 these or special species is immaterial. Tliis mucli, however, is clear: 

 the nondemonstration of a structureless membrane does not exclude 

 them from the Gregarines. The same may be said of the failure of 

 demonstration of a nucleus, as either it may exist in spite of such fail- 

 ure, or it may be destroyed by the manipulation preliminary to exam- 

 ination, or it may be present at some other i)eriod of the life-history. 

 Furtlier, the opinion has been several times expressed tliat nonnucleated 

 Gregarines exist. May thay not rather be auueba*? From these 

 organisms they are delimited by their inability to take up into their 

 substance undissolved solid particles. 



In 1S()."'> Balbiani ' expressed a decided opinion in favor of their cry|i- 

 togamic nature and, regarding the spore :is the adult organism, assigned 

 to the filaments the function of antherozoids, a view which he supple- 

 mented in 1883 by the designation of the sporoplasm as a " female ele- 

 ment."^ He further considered the " elastic ribbons " of Mi/xoholu.s eUip- 

 soicles comparable to the elaters of the Uquisvtitm spore and supposed 

 that, in addition to effecting valve separation, they serve to maintain 

 the contact of two individuals during what he considered a state of 

 conjugation. Tliese views he reaffirmed in 180<5.'' 



In 1875 Schneider^ placed himself on record in oiiposition to the 

 current theory of the close relationship between tlie Myxosporidia and 

 the Gregarines, saying that; 



One knows that, un<Ier the name of Psorosperms, tliere have been tiuited (rather 

 by reason of taxoiioniie necessities than by the coordination of positive data and 

 sutticiently precise elements) four things, (Gregarines, Mtjxosporidia, Sarcosporidia 



1 Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, Lvii, pp. 157-161. 



2 Jonrn. de Microgr., vii, p. 278. 



^ Journ. Anat. et Pliysiol., in, pp. 600-G02. 



* Archiv. de Zool. Exper., Paris, iv, ]»p. 548, 5(>1, and Notes et Revue, pp. xl, XLi. 



