762 SUMMARY OF CUREENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



ance of the nuclear plate there is a stage in which it resembles that of 

 the Infusoria ; as in them, bands, which may be coloured for their 

 whole extent, reach from pole to pole. This would seem to show that 

 in ActinosphcBrmm the achromatic filaments contain particles of 

 chromatin throughout their whole extent, and the same is probably 

 true of the Infusoria. 



In addition to the interest which surrounds the nucleus of Actino- 

 sj)hcBrium in consequence of its intermediate position, the mode of 

 formation of the lateral plates is also of interest. The view of 

 Flemmiug that in animal cells these plates are primitively laid down 

 separately does not apply to Actinosphcerium, where the first rudiment 

 of the nuclear plate is a single row of granules. The nucleus is also 

 distinguished by the possession of polar plates, or aggregations of homo- 

 geneous substance which are interpolated between the striated part 

 of the nucleus and the homogeneous protoplasmic cones ; they appear 

 to be derivatives of the cell-nucleus, formed by the clearing up of 

 its peripheral parts. The nuclear filaments are distinguished from 

 those of animal and vegetable cells by their finely granular condition ; 

 they appear to consist of paranuclein, together with minute remnants 

 of colourable nuclein. 



Parasite of the Wall of the Intestine of the Horse.* — M. Flesch 

 gives an account of a parasite which he has proposed to call Globidium 

 leuckarti, and which was found particularly in the connective tissue of 

 the intestinal villi of the horse, where its presence may give rise to 

 subacute inflammation. It ordinarily has. a spherical or ellipsoid 

 body sharply marked off by its capsule ; in most cases its wall is 

 hollowed by a special fusiform or semilunar cavity, which is com- 

 pletely filled by a granular body or, as the author calls it, the 

 accessory body. In position it resembles the remains of the yolk in 

 the ova of Tcenia. In another form the refractive spherules in the 

 interior of the parasite were solely parietal in position, and the 

 central space was occupied by a protoplasmic mass, which was very 

 uniformly granular. The author describes the stages in development 

 that he was able to observe, and then addresses himself to the question 

 as to whether he had here to do with a phase in the alternation of 

 generations of a higher organism, or whether the parasite was a 

 Sporozoon. He next gives a list of the known parasites of the horse, 

 which, as being fuller than that of Linstow, may be of use for other 

 purposes, and discusses the probabilities of his new form being a stage 

 in the life-history of any one of these ; this view being rejected he 

 addresses himself to the Sporozoon-view, against which it seems there 

 is nothing to be said, but in favour of which there is almost as little ; 

 in fact it is, at present, impossible to assign a definite position to the 

 parasite. The relatively large capsules, and their position in the con- 

 nective tissue are against its being a Sporozoon ; the part played by 

 the accessory body is unknown, and the evidence as to its being ex- 

 pelled from the organism is incomplete. The author hopes to be able to 

 make further and more complete investigations and meanwhile proposes 



* Kecueil Zool. Suisse, i. (1884) pp. 459-89 (1 pi.). 



