286 M. E. Claparede o)i Actinophrys Sol. 



are not justified in concluding that every compound form is 

 produced by conjugation, as Stein and Perty are inclined to do. 

 We know, in fact, very little about the signification of these 

 processes in the Infusoria, and if it be proved that more than 

 two individuals may thus be fused together, the connexion of 

 these phenomena with reproduction will become exceedingly 

 doubtful. The word conjugation might in this case be dropped, 

 as it leads the thoughts involuntarily to the wonderful process 

 by which fertilization is effected in Spirogyra amongst the Algse, 

 or in Diplozoon paradoxum and the Gregnrinidce amongst ani- 

 mals, replacing it by Stein's expression process of fusion, or as 

 Ehrenberg has it, zygose. But what would then be the meaning 

 of the phsenomenon ? Ehrenberg * regards it as a means of invi- 

 gorating the species, which is certainly a curious idea, and not 

 very reconcilable with the ordinary laws of nature. 



Whether Actinophrys has any other mode of propagation be- 

 sides self-division is unknown. On this subject Nicolet has pro- 

 duced a veiy singular memoir, of which an abstract is to be 

 found in the ' Comptes Rendus' of the Academy of Sciences of 

 Paris for 1848 ; I can, however, put no faith in it. He pro- 

 fesses to have seen an ovary enclosed in a membranous capsule, 

 and another sexual gland in Actinophrys ! Ehi*enberg does not 

 go so far as this, although it was of such importance to him to 

 point out organs which he could represent as ovaries and seminal 

 glands ; he is contented with saying, " The pale round space in 

 the middle which INIiiller saw on desiccation, may be the male 

 sexual glands, which I have never made out quite clearly. A 

 granular cloud may be connected with the ovaries." Xicolet 

 asserts that Actinophrys lays eggs, from which Halteria grandi- 

 nella, Duj. [Trichodina grandinella, Ehrb.) is evolved. In a second 

 mode of propagation the young are developed from germs pre- 

 existing in a wheel-animalcule, the Rotator inflatus {Rotifer ?) ! 

 These germs produce Halterite " qui s'echappent en sautant." 

 Pertv states that Podophrydes are developed from Actino- 

 phrydes, which however is scarcely reconcilable with Stein's ob- 

 servations upon the Acineta-\\ke state of the Vorticella. 



We come now to the interesting but controvertible question 

 of the anatomical structure of Actinophrys. Kolliker's obser- 

 vations and my own have satisfactorily proved that no value is 

 to be attached to the assumption that this animal possesses a 

 mouth and an anus. It is equally impossible to admit the ex- 

 istence of a general integument, as Actinophrys can push out the 

 mucous or gelatinous matter of which its body is composed, 

 take in nourishment, or evacuate the residue of digestion, from 



* Bericht der Berl. Akad. April 1854. 



