92 PROTISTS AND DISEASE 



cytoplasm by radial extensions across the remains of the 

 nuclear cavity. The latter is seen as in the direct sporangium 

 of the thistle- Synchytrium described at the end of Chapter IV 

 to be nothing more than a sap-vacuole. Stevens terms the 

 irregular body, Fig. 24, a, a nucleus, but there is no doubt 

 that it corresponds to the nucleolus of Fig. 20, B. 



The nucleolar substance instead of growing into the 

 cytoplasm by intermittent mitotic discharges as in S. endo- 

 bioticum, or by continuous expansion as chasmatoplasson 

 in the thistle- Synchytrium, has become amoeboid and is 

 streaming on all sides into the cytoplasm. 



Together with nuclei such as that just described Stevens 

 found homogeneous nuclear bodies, Fig. 24, 6, surrounded 

 by a clear space and bounded by a delimiting membrane. 

 Sometimes, as shown at c, they were met with in closely 

 packed groups. Stevens also found astral bodies either 

 near, as in 6, or attached to these nuclei, d. 



The Bird's-eye Bodies of Cancer. The abovementioned 

 curious nuclei found by Stevens in .Synchytrium are nothing 

 more nor less than the homologues of the " cancer-bodies " 

 or bird's-eye bodies of human pathology. In 1892 and for 

 several years after that date they were claimed by some 

 pathologists to be the only true " protozoa " to be found in 

 cancer. 



They are not peculiar to cancer, nor are they to be found 

 in their typical form in all cancers, though they are remark- 

 ably abundant in many. 



