14 Maurice Crowfhcr Hall 



likewise be uniformly distributed or may collect in a peripheral 

 hollow cylinder or a central solid cylinder or be irregularly dis- 

 tributed. Inclusions, at times globular and at times irregular, are 

 occasionally present. They do not stain in the same way that the 

 nucleus does. 



The entocyte of the protomerite is commonly more finely gran- 

 ular than that of the deutomerite and often manifests a slight 

 difference in its affinity for stains. This same difference in staining 

 reaction has been noted by Leger and Duboscc^ (1904). Johan- 

 sen (1894) records that in Actinoccphahis goronozvitschi the 

 protomerite is uniformly granular, while the deutomerite is irreg- 

 ularly so with clear spots. These things naturally suggest some 

 speculation in reg-ard to the question which Liihe ( 1904) raises 

 regarding the nutrition of gregarines. There is no reasonable 

 question as to the nature of this nutrition and the method by 

 which it is taken in by the gregarine, but whether the absorption 

 from the intestinal content takes place uniformly over the entire 

 body surface or preponderantly over a restricted area is not 

 known. Btitschli (1882) notes the quite evident fact that sub- 

 stances pass ill solution through the ectocyte and then precipitate 

 out in the entocyte to form the reserve granules. Of the pos- 

 sible hypotheses in regard to the exact location of the osmotic 

 action I think the facts in hand point to one as the more probable. 

 The presence of a septum makes it quite natural to ask. Is osmosis 

 about equal over the entire body surface, or does it predominate 

 in the protomerite or deutomerite, the dominant member in the 

 latter case supplying the other by osmosis through the septum ? 

 I am inclined to think that the method of feeding in infusoria, 

 where a thin place in the ectosarc is utilized for the ingestion of 

 food, gives a basis for believing that osmosis would occur most 

 readily where the ectosarc was thinnest. Consequently, in forms 

 where there is a thickening of the sarcocyte over the greater part 

 of the protomerite and the posterior part of the deutomerite. as 

 in Hiruwcystis rigida, it seems probable that osmotic imbibition 

 from the exterior is most active in the deutomerite between the 

 septum and the posterior thickening. This seems to fit very well 

 with the finer granulation of the entocyte in the protomerite, a 



162 



