238 THE SPOROZOA 



and characterised, according to its founder, by forming three, exception- 

 ally four, spores ; hence made the type of a tribe Trisporea. Schaudinn, 

 Blanchard, and others regard the trisporous condition as an anomaly, and 

 place the species under Coccidium. 



Rhabdospora, Laguesse, 1895 ; Gonobia, Mingazzini, 1892 ; Pfei/erella, 

 Labbe", 1899; Molybdis, Pachinger, 1886; Cretya, Mingazzini, 1892; 

 and perhaps also Gymnospora, Moniez, 1886, probably all of which 

 represent the schizogonous generations of species of Coccidium and 

 other genera. For full details concerning them the reader is referred 

 to Labbe" [4]. 



Branchiocystis, Burchardt, 1900 (Jen. Zeitschr. f. Nat. wiss. 34, pp. 

 779-784, pi. xix. figs. 9-11, and xx. figs. 1-9), a genus founded for 

 B. amphioxi, a "Coccidium" parasitic on the epithelium of the gill- 

 bars of Amphioxus. It was found to be seldom absent in Amphioxus 

 material from Naples and Messina, and often occurred in abundance, 

 affecting especially the gill-bars at the level of the apex of the liver. 

 The parasite appears as a rounded or oval body, 10-14 p in diameter, 

 lodged in the flagellated epithelium of the broad sides of the gill-bare. 

 Some of these bodies appear homogeneous, without nucleus (?) ; others con- 

 tain a number of oval or rounded " sporoblasts," 2-2 '5 ft in diameter, 

 which become sausage-shaped bodies. 



It is difficult to see why the author should consider Branchiocystis a 

 Coccidian. The description does not render it possible to place it near 

 any of the recognised genera of Coccidia. The figures given remind one 

 more of the Glugeidae amongst Myxosporidia than of any true Coccidian, 

 and it is perhaps in or near the genus Pleistophora (p. 297) that this 

 parasite would be correctly placed. 



Coccidioides, Rixford and Qilchrist, 1897, for C. immitis, R. and G., a 

 problematic organism occurring as a parasite of man, and up to the 

 present observed only in America. The infection, or rather contagion, 

 is acquired by the skin, whence the parasites spread into the lymphatics 

 and invade other organs. The malady caused by the parasite may be 

 chronic or acute, and in the latter condition it is fatal in a short time. 

 The characteristics of the disease are very similar to those of miliary 

 tuberculosis, an immense number of minute nodules being formed in all 

 the viscera. In each nodule one or two parasites are found, either free 

 or lodged in a giant cell. The parasites have the form of "rounded 

 protoplasmic masses, 20, 50, 60, or 80 /x in breadth, surrounded by a 

 thick enveloping membrane. Their multiplication ... is effected by a 

 series of bipartitions which go on within the membrane. The latter then 

 bursts and sets free the young parasitic elements, which grow in situ, 

 or are carried away by the blood or lymph" (Blanchard). Several 

 forms of the parasite have been described, and have even received dis- 

 tinct names. A full account of them will be found in Blanchard [30], 

 who considers that they are Sporozoa, but not to be included in the order 

 Coccidiidea. 



