CHAPTER II 



SOME ALGAL AND FUNGAL PROTISTS 



PROTISTOLOGY has been defined by Pavillard as the compara- 

 tive cytology of primitive forms of life. It is this and more : 

 it includes the natural history of the organisms, and, when 

 they are parasites their relation to their hosts. 



Algae 



With the known exception of one parasitic species noticed 

 below, all algae contain chlorophyll and so have that most 

 important of all physiological properties, the power of 

 decomposing C0 2 in sunlight, the oxygen being liberated and 

 the carbon either used in metabolism directly or built up 

 into starch, C 6 Hi 5 , as reserve nutriment. In a word 

 they are holophytic, except one or two parasitic species. 



The starch in many cases is deposited in chromatophores 

 in refractive bodies, called pyrenoids, which stain purple, 

 blue, or even black with iodine solution. A few typical 

 algae and fungi may now be reviewed briefly in order to 

 lead up to a closer study of some of their congeners, which 



are pathogenic to man, 



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