NAT GORE 
145 
THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1885 
BUTSCHLI’S “PROTOZOA” 
Bronn’s Classen und Ordnungen des Thierreichs. 
Issue. (Leipzig: C. F. Winter, 1883-4-5.) 
| ia important work on the lowest division of the 
animal kingdom which Prof. Biitschli, of Heidel- 
berg, has underta‘en for the publishers of the well-known 
series of zoological treatises originated by the late Prof. 
Bronn, is so far advanced as to enable us to form some 
estimate of its merits and to call for an extended notice. 
The separate parts of Prof. Butschli’s work which have 
appeared at intervals during the last two years have now 
accumulated so as to form a large octavo of 900 pages 
and 50 plates. The whole of the Protozoa have been dis- 
cussed with the exception of the Ciliata, the Dino-flagel- 
lata (formerly called Cilio-flagellata), and the Acinetaria. 
The work does not comprise in its scope the Mycetozoa, 
which should, in the opinion of the present writer, be in- 
cluded in the animal kingdom. This is the less to be 
regretted, since an excellent work on this group has been 
recently published by Dr. Zopf, of Berlin, in the “ Ency- 
klopadie der Naturwissenschaften,” and may be obtained 
separately of the publishers, Trewendt, of Breslau. 
That the Mycetozoa are to be considered as animals 
rather than as plants is the opinion of no less an authority 
than the botanist De Bary, who has done more than 
any other observer to elucidate their life-history and 
structure. 
Biitschli divides the Protozoa into classes as follows— 
the Sarkodina, the Sporozoa, the Mastigophora, and pre- 
sumably the Ciliata and the Tentaculifera, though of the 
last two he has not yet written. 
The Sarkodina are divided into the sub-classes Rhizo- 
poda, Heliozoa, and Radiolaria. 
The class Sporozoa contains the sub-classes Gregar- 
inida, Coccidia, Myxosporidia, and Sarcosporidia. 
The Mastigophora are grouped in sub-classes as Flagel- 
lata, Choanoflageliata, Cystoflagellata, and Cilioflagellata 
(now altered to Dinoflagellata). 
Each of the sub-classes is treated of in turn in the 
thoroughly systematic and comprehensive manner which 
the readers of Bronn’s “ Thierreich” know so well and 
have so long appreciated. The treatment commences 
with a ‘‘ Historical Review of the Development of our 
Knowledge of the Sub-class,” which is no formal repe- 
tition of familiar commonplaces, but a really critical 
statement of the share contributed by various earlier 
naturalists to the building up of our present conceptions 
on the subject. This is followed by a wonderfully com- 
plete list of memoirs and papers relating to the group— 
under the heading “Literature.” We have in many 
instances tested the completeness of these lists, and have 
found that even short papers in obscure periodicals which 
happen to contain facts of real importance have been 
duly hunted up and recorded by Prof. Biitschli. 
Then follows a “Short Survey of the Morphological 
Characteristics of the Sub-class and its Chief Divisions,” 
and after this each prominent morphological factor is 
taken separately and its variations in the group very 
VOL. XXx1I.—No. 816 
New 
thoroughly discussed, references being given to the widely 
scattered writings of the numerous microscopists who 
have advanced this or that view or added this or that 
quantum of fact to our knowledge. Thus in the portion 
of the work relating to the Rhizopoda we find— 
(1) The shell-structure of the Rhizopoda. A. Material 
of the shell—(a) chitinous shells; (0) calcareous shells ; 
(c) shells built up of foreign particles; (@) siliceous 
shells. B. The morphological structure of the Rhizopod 
shell—(a) homaxonic shells; (4) monaxonic shells ; (¢) 
polythalamous shells ; (¢) abnormal shell-formation. 
(2) The structure of the soft body of the Rhizopoda— 
(a) general characters of the soft body ; (4) properties of 
the protoplasm of the Rhizopod-body in general; (c) 
differentiation of the protoplasm into special zones or 
regions ; (@) coloration of the protoplasm ; (e) peculiar 
bodies enclosed by the protoplasm, namely, non-con- 
tractile vacuoles, gas-bubbles, and peculiar .products of 
metabolism, contractile vacuoles, nuclei; (/) pseudo- 
podia, movement and inception of nutriment in the 
-Rhizopoda ; (g) gelatinous investment of the soft body. 
(3) Relation of the soft body to the shell and formation 
of the shell by the soft body. 
(4) Reproductive phenomena, colony-formation, and 
encystment of the Rhizopoda—(a) reproduction by simple 
division or budding ; (2) colony-formation in connection 
with the division or budding of the Rhizopoda; (c) 
encystment in connection with or without reproduction ; 
(d) copulation and conjugation in the Rhizopoda; (¢) 
review of the attempts made to prove the: existence of a 
sexual reproduction in the Rhizopoda. 
(5) Biological relations of the Rhizopoda—(@) habitat ; 
(2) nutrition ; (c) dependance on external life-conditions. 
(6) Taxonomy of the Rhizopoda—(a) historical deve- 
lopment; (4) review of the system of the Rhizopoda, with 
brief characterisation of the divisions, inclusive of genera. 
(8) Geographical distribution of the Rhizopoda. 
(9) Palaontological development of the Rhizopoda. 
This exhaustive discussion of the Rhizopoda occupies 
about 250 pages and 13 plates, in which the most im- 
portant forms are figured: the figures being selected from 
all sources, and showing not only shell-structure but all 
that is known with regard to the protoplasmic body. 
In the same thorough manner the subsequent groups of 
Sarkodina, of Sporozoa and Mastigophora are dealt with. 
One point, however, to which we have not yet alluded 
gives Prof. Biitschli’s work an altogether exceptional 
value. From what we have hitherto said it might appear 
that the work is simply a well-digested and critical survey 
of other men’s work. This is not the case; the dis- 
cussion of each group possesses a special value and 
importance from the fact that Prof. Biitschli has made 
very extensive researches himself in regard to the Protozoa, 
and has especially given attention to doubtful points, so 
that he is able to speak with the authority of a specialist 
in nearly every case. Portions of these researches, for 
instance those on the Radiolaria, on the Gregarinida and 
Myxosporidia (Psorosperms), and on the Flagellata have 
been already published from time to time during the past 
five years by Prof. Biitschli in various scientific journals. 
They have everywhere excited the greatest interest and 
have been recognised as most important additions to 
knowledge. In the present work they appear in due 
