430 Miscellaneous. 



met with them in the genital organs of a Lumbrieus, accompanied by 

 true GregarhuB. These two facts evidently demonstrate a relation 

 between the Navicellae and the development of the Greyarince. Nu- 

 merous observations made by Dr. Stein on the development of the 

 Navicellse in the Lumbriciis, prove that these are only stages of meta- 

 morphosis of the Gregarince. After having observed some trans- 

 itions between the genus Zygocystis (a Gregarina where two indivi- 

 duals adhere by the anterior portion of their body) and the cysts in 

 which the Navicellse are developed. Dr. Stein compares their forma- 

 tion to the reproduction by conjugation observed in some Confervse. 

 Observations made upon other Gregarince inhabiting the intestinal 

 canal of insects appear to confirm this view. It would thence result 

 that two individuals unite at first by juxtaposition. In these adult 

 pairs each individual assumes an oval shape. The interior septum 

 separating the cavity of the body into two portions is re-absorbed ; the 

 two individuals then appear like two hemispheres pressed one against 

 the other ; they then secrete a gelatinous liquid, wliich solidifies, en- 

 veloping the two. Lastly, the particular membrane of each individual 

 is re-absorbed, and their contents unite into a single granular sphere, 

 which is gradually converted into Navicellse. These bodies, called 

 germinating granules by Dr. Stein, are frequently met with in the 

 excrements of diiferent insects, either free from their cysts or still 

 contained in their envelopes (for instance in Tenebrio molitor). From 

 thence they arrive with the food in the intestinal canal of other indi- 

 viduals, where on their development they give rise to Gregarince. — 

 Mullers Archiv and Bill . Univ., August 1849. 



WAY IN WHICH TOADS SHED THEIR SKINS. 



I have a small house under my care for growing cucumbers. 

 There is a bed in the middle of it, and the soil is about 3 feet high 

 from the ground (i. e. to the top of the hills where the plants are 

 in). A person therefore standing in the house can examine an ob- 

 ject placed on the hill with ease. Last Saturday, about 7 o'clock a.m., 

 I uncovered the house, and went in to see that all was right, when to 

 my surprise I saw my pet companion, a fine toad, apparently in the 

 agonies of death. It was seated at the end of the ridge or hill of 

 soil ; its mouth or rather under-jaw opening every few seconds (the 

 top jaw did not move), the eyes shut, and the body violently con- 

 vulsed each time the jaw opened, and with each convulsion of the 

 body the right fore-foot was raised to the head . I placed myself in 

 front of it, and perceived that it was drawing something into its 

 mouth each time the jaw moved ; at that instant the right eye opened, 

 it then inflated the body on the left side and drew in the right, 

 placing at the same time the left fore-foot on the head behind the 

 eye and drawing it down to the mouth ; it then appeared to hold its 

 foot in the mouth for about a second, when it drew it out, and I di- 

 stinctly saw the three points of skin that came off its toes outside its 

 lips till the next opening of the jaw, when they were drawn into the 

 mouth. When it drew its foot over its left eye (which before was 

 shut), it broke out as bright as ever. Some folds of the skin adhered 

 to the left leg, but by two or three motions of the jaw they were 



