ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 357 



the Polycystideae to have no greater importance, it being found 

 similarly developed in Monocystidese as well. The method of 

 generation and development exhibits important variations both in 

 the Mono- and Polycystidese, and, indeed, is repeatedly found to be 

 identical in members of both the groups. The author at first con- 

 sidered that the Gregarines should be broken up into two subdivisions, 

 according as encystation occurs in the course of reproduction or does 

 not ; these were termed respectively Acystoplasta and Cystoplasta. He 

 even found that in a Gregarine obtained from Julus sabulosus (and 

 probably identical with Stenocephalus Juli Schn.), the spore-formation 

 was completed without encystation, and without alteration of any 

 kind in the shape of the body. He considers, however, this case not 

 of sufficient importance to establish the above two subdivisions, and 

 therefore distinguishes three divisions by the process of development 

 and spore-formation ; their characters may, however, be stated at the 

 outset as difficult to understand, owing to the very indistinct pre- 

 liminary notices in which the results of the author's developmental 

 researches are presented. We give the characteristics of these three 

 divisions as follows in the words of their author : — 



" i. Greg. IsoplastcB. — The germs of the Gregarinse and the series 

 of the Myxomycetes appear at the same time, and both take their 

 origin from the differentiated body-mass, but each for itself and in- 

 dependently one of the other. Cystoplasta represents Myxomycete 

 forms by plasmodia. 



" ii. Greg. Proteroplastce. — The body-mass of the Gregarinse, 

 when generatively mature, becomes differentiated into a Myxomycete 

 Plasmodium. The Gregarine germs take their origin from this. 

 Acystoplasta. 



" iii. Greg. Hysteroplastce. — The Gregarine germs first originate 

 from the differentiated body-mass ; the series of the Myxomycetes 

 proceeds exclusively from certain transformations of the germs of 

 the Gregarines (amoeboid bodies). Cystoplasta. Myxomycete forms 

 represented by plasmodia with radiating processes, pigments, cal- 

 careous corpuscles, and Mycetozoa." 



The Myxomycete forms which produce psorospermise are regarded 

 by the author as derived from disintegrated Proteroplasta, but the 

 " sickle-shaped bodies found in Yertebrata and claimed as Gregarines 

 by Eimer," on the other hand, as allied to the Hysteroplasta. 



Psorospermise in Man.* — B. Grassi has found in the excrements 

 of a boy and of a young man during a long period (2^ months in 

 the first case) numerous bodies which after much hesitation he 

 describes as oval Psorospermise (Coccidia). They exhibit a number 

 of variations in size and form ; they are sometimes globular, some- 

 times elliptical ; in the first case they generally measure • 008 mm. 

 in diameter, but in the latter usually "008 to '006 mm. ; they have a 

 distinct, and in the larger individuals a double-contoured test, and 

 finely granular contents, completely filling the shell and containing 



* Eendic. R. Islit. Lombard., iii. (1880) 3 pp. Cf. Zool. Jahresber. Neapel for 

 1880, i. p. 162. 



