08 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FllSH AND FISHERIES. 



Ill lS81,as tlio result of ;iii extoiHlcd study of both Mi/.rosporidia aud 

 Grcgariues, Biitschli' expressed liis opiuioii substautially as follows: 



That the relation between the Mi/xosporidia aud the Gregaiiiies is no very ii.ti- 

 niatt' one is showu both by the struetun- of the inyxos])ori(lium and by that of the 

 spore, aud also by the mode of spore formatiou. In the last two res])ccts the MyxuHpo- 

 ridia can be compared with the Grej^arines only in the most general way. There are, 

 indeed, some observations (e. jj., the dubions one of Claparide's on Monocysttn capitala 

 Leuek., and that of Ciabriel on a Grcgariuc oi' Jiiliis, the latter, however, too incom- 

 plete to serve as a basis for theoretic conclusions) which render a n<mencysted 

 (perhaps also an endogenous) spore formatiim in certain Gregarines not improbable. 

 The possession in common of bivalve and tailed spore shells is an unimportant 

 similarity. Above all, we have every right to regard the capsules as a character 

 especially indicative of the Mi/xosporidia, and of those no gregarine spore has so far 

 shown a trace, the two bodies found by Schneider in the Addea spore being scarcely 

 to be paralleled with them. 



These conditions [the caj)sules] of the myxosporidiau spore speak just as strongly 

 against a close connection between the Myxosporhlia and the Myxomycetes, as the 

 spores of the latter possess no structures comparable to the myxosporidiau capsule. 

 The pigment found in a few Mijxosporidla {Mxjxidium lieberkiihnii, etc.) is not to 

 be compared to that of the Myxomycetes, as it is not of myxosporidiau but of 

 extraneous origin. Naturally, the ilyxomycetes, especially in the simplest forms, 

 show in their partly peculiar endogenous spore formation a certain similarity to the 

 MyxoHporidia, but such a similarity also exists between the Myxomycetes and certain 

 lihizopoda. Among the latter the Myxosporidia seem to possess some special relation 

 with the interesting Pelomyxa, inasmuch as the latter possesses a great number of 

 small nuclei, aud in addition it is probable that it ]irodnces endogenonsly chlamydo- 

 sp«)res, which, however, show no trace of capsules. I'mther, in the determination 

 of the systematic ]»osition of the MyxoKporidia stress should be laid upon the cap- 

 sules. From everything that we know tliey are comjiarable only to the thread cells, 

 which latter are exclusively auinuil structures which recent investigations have 

 shown to be preseut in the Protozoa. I do not conceal that this cri*^erion, like the 

 other barriers which have again and again been raised between the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms, may be erected only to be overturned through more penetrating 

 research. 



lu 1890 Pfeififer^ unites iuto his family " *S'/>o>y>//e» " the Myxospori- 

 dia, Microsporidia, aud Sarcofiporidia. He says: 



As a transition to more dangerous parasites are next to be made known the Sarco- 

 upoiidia, of which Miescher's tubes in the transversely stri]»ed muscles of the warm- 

 blooded animals are already known to physicians, but which are also found exactly 

 similar, only with diUerently shaped spores, e. g.. in the liesli of the barbel. 



Spore foruuitiou has, he says, no ('oustancy, trausitious being found 

 towards more highly developed forms and also toward the lower mem- 

 bers of the Sporozoa. Thus in the tenc^li fully developed forms are 

 found only upon the branchia* and in the air-bladder. In the gall 

 bladder and the cysts on the splenic artery, spore types are found which 

 form, step by step, transitions to the sim])le ])S('udonavicelh'e of the 

 (iregarines and to the structureless ovoids of tlie microsi)oridian cysts 

 of Bomhyx, Dcq)hma, etc., and to the condition observed in coccidian 



' Ztschr. f. wiss. Zool., xxxv, ])]!. (U8-(i.")0; also IJronn's Tliier-Reich, 1882, I, pp. 

 «i01-(;(>3. 



- Die Protozoeu als Kranklieit.sencgur, 1 ed., jtp. '2o-21, \1, 18, 74. 



