ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 1015 



under certain conditions, e. g. in the stagnant water of old cultures, 

 an amceboid form. Zacbarias notes the interesting corroboration thus 

 obtained of the phylogenetic origin of the Flagellata from amoeboid 

 forms. 



d. Schneider has shown how the spermatozoa of Nematodes 

 become amceboid in albumen, and covered with little undulating 

 projections in salt solution. 



e. Brass has shown how the formation of long thin pseudopodia 

 results from the treatment of Amoehse with weak solution of alum. 



/. Kiihne was also able to stimulate the formation of pseudopodia 

 in the plasmodia of Mycetozoa with dilute sugar solution, O'l per 

 cent, solution of common salt. 



These experiments of Zacbarias and others are interesting as 

 illustrations of the readiness with which cells may pass from one 

 phase to another in response to environmental influences, and are 

 thus full of suggestion in relation to normal and pathological cell- 

 variation, affording additional experimental proof of the theory of a 

 primitive cell-cycle, advanced by Geddes. 



Coleps hirtus.*— M. E. Maupas gives a careful account of this 

 infusorian ; he has been unable to come to any conclusion as to the 

 chemical characters of its carapace, so as to be certain whether there 

 is a true integument or cytoderm ; he doubts the presence of the fine 

 membrane connecting the large modified oral cilia which has been 

 mentioned by Entz. Coleps is sometimes carnivorous, and sometimes 

 herbivorous. To study the structure of the nnclein it is best to kill 

 the animal with the vajjour of osmic acid, wash with 1 per cent, 

 chloride of gold solution, and clear up with glycerin ; to kill directly 

 with chloride of gold ; or to replace the wash with gold by one with 

 2 per cent, chromic acid. 



After reviewing the opinions of various authors as to the zoological 

 position of Coleps, M, Maupas ranges himself with Ehrenberg, who 

 formed a family Colepidae, based on the presence of the solid carapace, 

 which is a special and dominant structure. The only known method 

 of multiplication is by transverse fission, and in this division the 

 carapace takes an important part. 



Supposed new Infusorian.t~Mr. G. J. Burch, in March 1884, 

 found in a ditch at Oxford an animalcule apparently undescribed, 

 and belonging to the Flagellata Eustomata. 



Each colony consisted of a compound stem, no portion of which 

 was contractile, bearing from 10 to 50 heads upon branchlcts somewhat 

 thinner tlian the main stem. These heads appeared in most positions 

 of an irregular pear-shape, the broad end projecting on one side into 

 a blunt proboscis from which arose a single stout flagellum. About 

 the centre of the creature was a very strongly refracting oval spot 

 with a somewhat corrugated siuface. Between this and the moutli, 

 which lies in a cup-shaped depression close under the proboscis, was 

 a passage the walls of which could be distinctly seen even when there 



• Arch. Zfjol. Expo'r. et Gdn., iii. (188r.) pp. 337-67 (1 pi.), 

 t Joiirii. Qufkclt Micr. Club, ii. (1885) pp. 1C3-4. 



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