COCCIDIA 509 



Microscop. Club, 2nd series, vol. vi, no. 36, p. 5, March, 1895) for 

 preserving Rotatoria, may be tried. In those forms which are 

 non-contractile, kill by adding a drop of J per cent, osmic acid, 

 wash immediately in water, and preserve in 2 per cent, formalin. 

 Contractile forms may be first narcotised by adding a drop or two 

 of 2 per cent, cocaine solution, then killed with the osmic and 

 preserved as before. 



Class IV. Sporozoa 



The sporozoa are exclusively endoparasitic protozoa, the adult 

 lacking organs for locomotion and for the capture of food, and 

 multiply by some method of sporulation, often very complex. 

 Binary fission is almost unknown in this group. A parasite during 

 the nutritive or " trophic " phase, when it is absorbing nutri- 

 ment and growing at the expense of its host, is termed a trophozoite ; 

 when it is mature and ready for sporulation it is termed a sporozoite 

 or schizont. The spores are of various kinds, and may develop 

 outside the body or in a second host. 



Order. Coccidiidea 



The Coccidiidea, with a single exception, are intra-cellular during 

 the trophic stage, and present a dimorphism or alternation of 

 generations ; the one is endogenous and asporular, determining 

 the reproduction of the parasite within the host, the other exogenous 

 and sporular and permitting of infection. 



Coccidial Disease of Rabbits 



This is a disease caused by a sporozoon, the Coccidium (Eimeria) 

 oviforme or cuniculi, and often met with in warrens and hutches ; 

 in some of the former as many as 90 per cent, of the animals may be 

 affected. The young animals suffer most, and become infected when 

 they cease to suckle and commence to eat green food, the adult ani- 

 mal as a rule resisting the disease. The affected animals waste, suffer 

 from enteritis, and a large proportion die in from one to three weeks, 

 the condition being known as " wet-snout " among the keepers. 

 The parasites occur in the intestine, bile-ducts, and liver in large 

 numbers. Each parasite is ovoid in shape, measuring 36 p. in length 

 and 22 p, in breadth, is enclosed in a firm translucent cyst, which 

 encircles a very granular protoplasm. Sometimes this protoplasm 



