368 THE MICROSCOPE. 



that of the heart, and it was supposed that these had 

 some share in the production of the disease ; but upon 

 making further investigations this has been found not to 

 be so, and since the same bodies are known to be gene- 

 rally distributed throughout the ultimate fibres of animals 

 dying from other diseases, the only interest that can 

 attach to the discovery is, that it promises to add some 

 valuable facts to our knowledge of the remarkable group 

 of Protozoa, the Gregarince. The Gregarines observed 

 in the flesh of oxen, and described by Dr. Beale, 

 have elongated spindle-shaped sacs, containing granular 

 reniform bodies arranged horizontally, and apparently 

 capable of multiplying by division. The investing 

 sac is covered with minute, motionless, hair-like bodies. 

 No nucleus is present in the sac; but the reniform 

 granular masses are stated by Dr. Cobbold to possess 

 nucleoli. The structure thus presented is not far removed 

 from that of many Gregarince, particularly of the larger 

 individuals occurring in the earthworm, though the hair 

 like processes sometimes observable on these are con- 

 sidered as extraneous by Dr. Leiberkiihn. The compacted 

 reniform masses may be considered as the results of a pro- 

 cess of segmentation, similar to that by which the pseudo- 

 naviculse are formed. The bodies thus described are by 

 no means peculiar to diseased cattle ; they are met 

 with in the healthy muscles of the ox, sheep, pig, deer, 

 rat, mouse, mole, and perhaps other animals. Gregarince, 

 in various stages, are represented in Plate III. figs. 53, 

 54, 55, and 56. Miescher, in 1843, described such bodies, 

 taken from the muscles of a mouse, and a very good 

 account of them, obtained from the muscles of a pig, is 

 given by Mr. Eainey, in the " Philosophical Transactions," 

 for 1857, though he erroneously regarded them as the 

 young stage of cestoid entozoa. They have been described 

 under a variety of titles, such as worm-nodules, egg-sacs, 

 eggs of the fluke, young measles, " corpuscles produced by 

 muscular degeneration,' &c. When considered in con- 

 nexion with the minute cysts described by Gabler, Virchow, 

 and Dressier, from the human liver, they have an especial 

 interest ; and the observations of Lindernann on the psoro- 

 spermial sacs obtained from the hair of a peasant at 



