358 6U1IMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



from one to eight roundisii nucleoid bodies. The contents may also be 

 sometimes quite homogeneous or somewhat condensed and retracted 

 from the test, and in many the protoplasm contained from one to six 

 semilunar homogeneous glistening bodies, which, however, judging by 

 the very poor figure given of them, show no special resemblance to 

 the sickle-shaped bodies of Coccidia. The behaviour of these bodies 

 towards various reagents and staining substances is also described. 

 From all this the Coccidian character of these structures seems to be 

 still doubtful. The two patients exhibited no complaints to which 

 the presence in them of these parasites might be referred. 



Myxosporidia.* — Under this term, which is introduced f by Pro- 

 fessor 0. Biitschli, maybe mentioned the so-called parasitic plasmatic 

 tubes of the pike's bladder, discovered by Lieberkiihn, and belong- 

 ing to the so-called Fish-Psorospermiae, so widely distributed in 

 these animals. According to Gabriel, they have no intimate con- 

 nections with the Gregarinte, as Leydig, and later Lieberkiihn, have 

 endeavoured to show ; the following are the chief reasons which he 

 advances for this opinion. These very variously shaped protoplasmic 

 structures at no period of their life possess an envelope like that of 

 Gregarinse, and they are entirely non-nucleate. Moreover, the surface 

 of the body frequently developes extensions and radiating processes 

 of a very peculiar character, appearing now pointed, now finely 

 fringed, sometimes hair-like and often branched as well, and consist- 

 ing of protoplasm which is quite transparent, though not entirely 

 without granules. These stellate processes cannot be directly com- 

 pared to pseudopodia, for though they are protruded they are not 

 retracted again. They consist " of what may be called a thread- 

 drawing substance, which can issue forth with ease but cannot be 

 again retracted." A substance of this nature is said to be peculiar 

 to the protoplasm of Myxomycetes and to certain plasmodia resembling 

 Myxomycetes, and connected with the development of true Gre- 

 garines. Real phenomena of motion have not however been observed 

 by the author in these protoplasmic structures. A further argument 

 against their Gregarine nature is the presence in them of a yellow 

 pigment of various shades, pigment of which kind is frequently 

 found in the Myxomycetes. 



To what was known of the formation of the spores of the 

 true Psorospermiae which occur within the protoplasmic structures, 

 Gabriel is hardly able to add anything. According to him, the spores 

 are developed, as already stated by Leydig and Lieberkiihn, in spaces 

 or vacuoles which are at first unprovided with walls, and later, but 

 not in all cases, become converted into vesicles by formation of a 

 wall. The spores are formed within these vacuoles in a manner 

 which is compared by the author to a process of eecretion. Inasmuch 

 as several spores may develope within a single vacuole, Gabriel terms 

 the vacuoles " polysporogenetic centres of development," and sees in 

 them a veritable contrast to the " single, monosporogenetic forms of 



* Ber. naturw. Sect. Schles. Ges., 1879, pp. 26-33. Cf. Zool. Jahresber. 

 Neapel for 1880, i. pp. 162-4. 

 t Op. cit., p. 162. 



