464 SUMMAEY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



these obser-vations, thus described : — The water which enters through 

 the mouth is distributed between the particles of protoplasm, invests 

 them, and gives off its oxygen to them ; it then becomes unserviceable 

 to the organism, and must be expelled to make room for currents of 

 water from without containing oxygen. The water thus used up 

 collects at first in the canals, through which it flows to the vacuole, 

 which then, after it is filled, expels its contents by the contraction of 

 the surrounding protoplasm. 



Protoplasmic Layers in RMzopoda.* — Prof. A. Gruber reviews 

 some of the opinions held in regard to the often-disputed question as 

 to the existence of distinct zones in the protoplasm of Ehizopods. 



While many have distinguished ectoplasm and endoplasm, Maggi 

 defines three layers, ecto-, meso- and endo-plasm, and Brass four. 

 Agreeing with Biitschli in his criticism of Brass, Prof. Gruber 

 explains the supposed presence of distinct layers as due either to the 

 artificial results of staining, or to temporary aggregation of granules 

 and vacuoles, and emphasizes the homogeneity especially manifest 

 before division. He calls attention to the fact, observed independently 

 by Wallich and by himself, that contact with the water seems to 

 produce round the Ehizopod body a certain stiffening of the plasma, 

 to which Wallich has also referred the definiteness exhibited by the 

 food-vacuoles. 



Recent Irish Foraminifera.f — Messrs. F. P. Balkwill and J. 

 Wright report on recent foraminifera collected off the coast of Dublin 

 and in the Irish Sea ; in the systematic table 148 species are 

 enumerated, of which 14 are new to the British fauna. Of the latter, 

 OpJitlialmidium carinatum, Lagena curvilineata, Discorbina tuherculata, 

 Nonionina pauperata, are new species. 



Parasitic Protozoa in Asthmatic Sputa- f — Dr. Deichler reports 

 the presence in asthmatic sputa of organisms of constant form which 

 have a superficial resemblance to leucocytes, but are seen to differ 

 from them in their structure and vital phenomena. They tend to be 

 curved on themselves, and to have a central space which is occupied 

 by a smaller mass of protoplasm. Though convinced that he has here 

 to do with a protozoon, the author is undecided as to whether it is a 

 rhizopod, infusorian, or one of the Flagellata. 



Protozoan Parasites in Termites- § — Prof. B. Grassi describes and 

 figures a new Protozoan parasite found in great abundance in the 

 intestine of Calotermes flavicolUs. It resembles the Lophomonas 

 found in the intestine of Blatta, having a variable form, without 

 mouth or contractile vacuoles, and bearing at the anterior extremity a 

 large tuft of numerous vibratile flagella, at the base of which the 

 nucleus is seen. It differs from LopJiomonas in the possession of a 

 complex internal skeleton, occupying the longitudinal axis, and com- 



* Biol. Oentralbl., vi. (1886) pp. 5-8. 



t Trans. K, Irish Acad., xxviii. (1885) pp. 317-63 (3 pis.). 



J Zeitschr. f. Wiss. Zool., xliii. (1885) pp. 144-8. 



§ Acad. Gioenia. Sci. Nat., xviii. (1885) 6 pp. 



