288 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



form of free spores; in the cold stage, the blood always contains 

 bacilli, mostly in the stage described as sporogenous by Tommasi- 

 Crudeli, some, however, as filaments with barren joints or with 

 sporogenous joints. It is found in the blood of all parts of the 

 body. 



Tommasi-Crudeli has endeavoured,* by experiments, to discover a 

 means of rendering man proof against malaria. He has found that 

 arsenic, which can be used in the case of some other fevers, often 

 more advantageously than quinine, is an important agent in this case. 

 Thus a regular application of Fowler's arsenical fluid to men living 

 throughout the summer in some of the most malarious parts of the 

 Campagna, has restored their appetite and vigour, and has for two 

 seasons preserved them from the disease. Experiments on dogs, 

 made by Marchiafava and Cuboni, have shown that the disease may 

 be imparted by means of the blood of a diseased animal. Two points 

 remain to be determined: (1) the possibility or not of ensuring a 

 cure by the use of arsenic ; (2) the minimum dose which will suffice 

 to efiect this object. The general advantages of this medicine are 

 shown by the fact that, in the epidemic of malaria which lately visited 

 the town of Caserta, gelatine tablets containing arsenic were found 

 very useful ; they afford a means of regulating the proportions of 

 doses very minutely. 



Animal Nature of Myxomycetes. — Mr. W. S. Kent has recently f 

 supported the view of the purely animal nature of Myxomycetes, 

 which he considers to be established beyond question, classing them 

 with the sponges. " In both the formation of the gigantic compound 

 Plasmodium, and in the development therefrom of the characteristic 

 sporangia, these Myxomycetes exhibit certain phenomena singularly 

 suggestive of a more or less remote affinity with the sponges. In 

 these latter also the initial term takes the form of spore-developed 

 uniflagellate monads, which uniting in social colonies, form a gelatin- 

 ous mass, corresponding closely with the plasmodial element of the 

 former group. In the fine horny network, usually contained with the 

 spores within the sporangium developed by the mature plasmodium, 

 a substance is produced singularly resembling the fine horn-like 

 elements or keratose fibre of certain sponges, while, what is still 

 more remarkable, in certain forms, spieule-like bodies, composed of 

 carbonate of lime, are also developed within the substance of the 

 walls of the sporangium, or so-called 'peridium,' that accord sub- 

 stantially in outline with the stellate siliceous spicula of the Tethyid89 

 and other familiar sponge-groups." \ 



Dr. Cooke § strongly opposes this view, and considers that the 

 animal nature of the Myxomycetes " rests on similar and no better 

 evidence than the animal nature of the zoospores so common in 

 algaj, or the animal nature of diatoms." 



* Loc. cit, pp. 22-4. 



t Kent, W. S., ' A Manual of the Infusoria.' (8vo. London, 1880.) 



X Loc. cit, p. 43. § ' Grevillea,' ix. (1880) pp. 41-3. 



