ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
543 
by Laveran. According to tbe author, the Plasmodium malarise is, though 
highly pleomorphous, a single organism, which may pass through the 
whole developmental cycle without producing pigment, and only forms 
rosettes in the finer capillaries. The crescents are developed within 
red corpuscles. The communication is illustrated by 42 coloured figures,, 
showing the different stages of development of the parasites and their 
presence in spleen, kidney, and brain. 
Nature of the Parasite of Rabies.* — Dr. A. Grigorjew expresses 
the opinion that the exciting cause of hydrophobia is to be sought for 
among the Protozoa. To this view he is led, partly because no bacterium 
has yet been isolated capable of giving rise to the typical phenomena of 
rabies, but chiefly because appearances resembling those characteristic 
of Protozoa are discernible in the fixed virus. These bodies are about 
2-4 fx in size, of irregular shape and contour, and appear to be composed 
of protoplasm, which at the central parts is reticular, and at the peri- 
pheral homogeneous. In some of these corpuscles a nucleus is visible. 
Examined on the hot stage, changes of shape, slow amoeboid movements* 
and the extension of pseudopodia, are seen. These corpuscles were cul- 
tivated in the anterior chamber of the eye of dogs and rabbits. The 
author remarks that the course of this disease, rabies, is modified by the 
presence of accidental impurities, such as bacteria. 
Pebrine.f — Prof. Sasaki communicated to the Zoological Society of 
Tokyo the results of his investigations on this disease of the silkworm. 
He finds that the minute corpuscles which occur in the blood represent 
only a stage in the life-history of an amoeba-like organism. In other 
words, the corpuscles are spores, a view which confirms Balbiani’s rather 
than Pasteur’s results. 
* Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxii. (1897) pp- 397-402. 
t Annot. Zool. Japon., i. (1897) p. 123. 
