88 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Lake. Tlie bottom of the lake is covered with a slimy substance called 
by the fishermen Modeler ; and when this was allowed to stand in 
beakers in the laboratory, the new organism appeared. It is elliptical in 
shape, without pseudopodia, cilia, flagella, or nucleus, and contains small 
colourless particles apparently of sulphur, and usually also large 
refracting bodies. Protoplasm is not apparent, but the author believes 
that the organic nature is proved by the power of movement, and by 
the apparent occurrence of transverse division. 
Ramulina.* — Messrs. T. Rupert Jones and F. Chapman discuss the 
fistulose Polymorphinre and the genus Ramulina in particular. The 
genus is represented from Jurassic to recent times, and can be specifically 
divided into five well-marked types. The generic characters are summed 
up thus : — Test free or attached, branching, consisting of a calcareous 
tube, swollen at intervals, so as to form more or less definite, often 
irregular segments, from which lateral stolons or branches are sometimes 
given off. The swollen segments have complete or incomplete internal 
septa. The one or more apertures in the free forms are circular, being 
formed by the open end of the stolon-tube ; in the attached forms the 
apertures are usually formed by the protracted terminations of the 
stolon-tubes, and are semicircular in outline where the entire test is 
adherent to the foreign body. The surface may be smooth, hirsute, 
prickly, or tuberculate. An instance is known where Ramulina has 
been found within the chambers of another Foraminifer, also on and in 
fossil Echinoderm-tests ; but this cannot be true parasitism. 
Parasites of Sticholonche and the Acanthometridse.f — Dr. A. Borgert 
has an interesting paper on the curious and little-known structures 
found in the above Radiolarians, and constituting the “ spiral bodies ” of 
Fol, the Amoebophyra of Koffen. The author accepts Koffen’s name, and 
considers that the forms inhabiting respectively Sticholonche and the 
Acanthometridae are specifically distinct. By means of sections the 
author is enabled to describe in more detail than was previously possible 
the structure of Amoebophyra as it appears on leaving the host, The 
form is elongated and somewhat wormlike, and is marked externally by 
a ciliated spiral furrow, with numerous small nuclei following the line 
of the spiral. Internally there is a distinct tubular cavity with a 
posterior opening. Between the wall of this space and the external 
protoplasm there is apparently another cavity whose lumen is traversed 
by numerous strands of protoplasm. As to the position of these para- 
sites, the author rejects Korotneff ’s suggestion as to Orthonectid affinities, 
and accepts that of Koffen, who regards them as Acinetarian Protozoa. 
The life-history is probably complex, and is constructed by the author 
as follows: — The parasite becomes adult within its host, and then, 
escaping from it, becomes sessile, suctorial, and tentacle-bearing. This 
form gives rise to ciliated embryos, presumably with a single nucleus, 
which again become parasitic. In an additional note the author describes 
three mononucleated forms. As these were obviously not very young, 
they do not shed any light on the life-history, but rather render this 
more puzzling. 
* Joum. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), xxvi. (1897) pp. 334-51 (51 figs.). 
f Zeit. wiss. Zool., lxiii. (1897) pp. 141-86 (1 pi.). 
