1018 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



tubes which so intercross as to give the appearance cf an irregular 

 plexus. These he calls Pseudarhys. They are frequently to be found 

 in the cavities which are afforded by old perforated tests. One and 

 the same species was found in various retreats in a number of the 

 ' Travailleur ' dredgings ; among those of the ' Talisman ' there was 

 an example which showed a remarkable alteration in its mode of 

 hiding itself; instead of penetrating into a retreat already made, it 

 surrounded itself with corpuscles, and especially with Globigerinse, 

 In another case the covering was made of grains of sand, and of small 

 tests of Mollusca or their debris. In yet other cases the organism 

 covers itself with a composition of secretion and sarcode, quite 

 analogous to that which forms the tests of the porcellauous Forami- 

 nifera. For such forms the author proposes to establish the 

 genus LitJiozoa, vphich will, he expects, be found to contain several 

 species. 



Amoeba infesting Sheep.* — Sheep in New South Wales are affected 

 by a disease which appears to be very similar to epithelial cancer, and 

 is met with on the feet behind the hoofs and also on the lips and 

 nostrils and the gums of lambs. The epithelium in these places 

 grows with pathological rapidity, the horny layer produced soon 

 attains a thickness of 3-5 mm., the wool drops out in the diseased 

 parts and below the thick outer layer a festering process sets in. 

 After some time a new epithelium makes its appearance below the 

 festering layer. Then, provided the lamb does not die, the thick 

 horny layer is thrown off like scurf, and the epithelium below attains 

 new wool and replaces the old skin. 



In studying the circumstances in which these sheep live. Dr. E. v. 

 Lendenfeld found that they were invariably exposed to being wounded 

 in those places which eventually developed the disease, blistered by 

 standing on rocks heated by the sun after they had been standing in 

 water for several hours, or pricked by the spines of the variegated 

 thistle, and it was found by a process of artificial breeding in an 

 aquarium that the disease is produced by an Amoeba {A. parasitica 

 n. sp.), which enters the wounds and multiplies rapidly in the epi- 

 thelium, causing very strong irritation. The organism is found 

 between the layers of horny substance. It does not differ morpho- 

 logically from the well-known A. princess of Ehrenberg. 



Dr. Lendenfeld adds, " It is well known that several fungi in 

 certain stages of their life appear very similar to Amoe})(B, and so it is 

 not impossible that my Amoeba is in some connection with them. I 

 do not consider this probable, however, as I made no observation 

 which might lead one to suppose that the Amoeba ever divided into a 

 multitude of swarming spores." 



Critical Notes on Amoebse.t — Dr. G. C. \Vallich, after some critical 

 notes on the recent contributions to our knowledge of the Amoebce 

 made by Dr. Gruber and quotations from his own and other papers, 

 observes that, in his experience the number of nuclei may vary almost 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, x. (1885) pp. 35-8 (1 pL). 

 t Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xvi. (1885) pp. 215-27. 



