[5] CHROMATOPHAGUS PARASITICUS. 1131 



Utterly impossible to determiDe whether the parasites iu question are 

 really infusoria. To judge from the very primitive wood-cuts accom- 

 panying- t.he article, the parasites may have been Botifera^ and in all 

 probability were merely worm-shaped atrochous rotifers, belonging to 

 the genus Alhertia Duj.,' or Balatro Clap.," or perhaps to Bictyophora 

 Leidy.=^ 



Von La Valette St. George i*' mentions the articles by Hilgendorf and 

 Paulicki, and by Livingston Stone, but makes no further statement 

 rchitive to the occurrence of infusoria as skin parasites. 



In the most recent and very extensive work on infusoria, by Saville 

 Kent," this naturalist in speaking of the distribution of the infusoria 

 (vol. i, p. 109) mentions also those forms which so far have been known 

 to zoologists as endo parasites, or ecto-parasites ; among the rest, the 

 Ichthyophthiriiis multifiliis described by Fouquet in his article referred 

 to above. 



In the " Systematic description of the Infusoriaciliata" ^" Saville Kent 

 mentions this infasorian, and on the basis of Fouquet's observations es- 

 tablishes among the infusoria-ciliata a new family for the Ichthyoph- 

 thirius multifiUis, which he calls the Ichthyophthiriidw Saville Kent, 

 distinguishing this from the other families by the following : 



'■'■Fam. VIII.IcMhyophthiriidoB^. K. — Animalcules adherent, more or 

 less ovate, ciliate throughout, oral cilia of larger size than those of the 

 general cuticular surface, oral region adhesive, acetabuliform." 



Saville Kent, however, establishes this new family of ciliates with an 

 exijressed reservation, which I can very well understand. He very 

 justly remarks ^^ that the presence of a sucking-disk and the absence of 

 a mouth opening in these infusoria are points by no means certainly de- 

 termined. For physiological reasons the absence of a mouth opening 

 is characteristic only of endo-parasites, as is very distinctly shown by 

 the different species of Opalina. The occurrence of spots of a blackish 

 color ^* in the body substance sufficiently opposes the opinion enter- 

 tained by Fouquet, that there is no oral opening. In all probability 

 these black spots were nothing but granules of figment from the epider- 

 mis of the fish. 



''Dujardin: ^' Histoire naturelle des Tnfusoires." Paris, 1843, p. 653. 

 *Clapar6tle: ^^ Miscellanies zoologiques," in Annales des Sciences Natiirelles, vol. viii, 

 1867. 



^Leidy: "Retifora without rotatory organ," in Proceediugs Acad. Phil., 188::^, pp. 

 243-250. 



'0 V. La Valette St. George : " Ueber die Fdnde der Fische," in Circular of the German 

 Fishery Association, 1879, ]>. 77. 



1' W. Saville Kent : "A Manual of the Infusoria, including a description of all known 

 Flagellate, Ciliate, and Tentaculiferous Protozoa, British and foreign." London, 

 1880-'82. Vols. i,ii (text), and iii (plates). 

 ^-Saville Kent, vol. ii, p. 530. 

 '^Saville Kent, p. 531. 

 "Foucj^uet, p. 160. 



