56 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
observed by Bedot in the nematoblasts of Velella and Physalia. The 
protoplasmic mass of the spore is derived from another part of the sporo- 
blast ; it incloses two nuclei and a vacuole, the presence or absence of 
which is constant in one and the same form. 
Cercomonas intestinalis.* — Herr E. Muller found in the intestine of 
an executed criminal an infusorian which accurately answered to the de- 
scription given by Davaine of Cercomonas intestinalis. Directly after the 
execution, parts of the intestine were placed in Muller’s fluid, chromic acid, 
and also alcohol. The infusorian had an oval or pyriform body, one end 
of which was continued into a tail, while the other, which was rounded 
off, carried a whiplike cilium. The length of the body was O' 006 mm., 
and the breadth 0*002 mm. The protoplasm contained one or two 
nuclei. 
The parasite was only found in the jejunum. The location of the 
animals in the intestinal mucus was very characteristic ; they formed a 
compact mass covering as with a membrane the surface of the intestinal 
mucosa, while those lying a little deeper were arranged in groups. The 
author notes that the presence of these parasites gave rise to no patho- 
logical changes. 
Haematozoon of Malaria and its Evolution.! — M. Laveran, the 
author of the 4 Traite des fievres palustres,’ attacks the position maintained 
by Golgi, Feletti, Anatolei, and others that the various types of malaria 
are produced by different micro-organisms of the same class. He 
considers that the blood-parasite is one and the same although variable 
in form, and that its development may not always be alike. According 
to him the type of the fever depends rather on the condition of the 
patient, on his predisposition, and on the length of his exposure to 
the malaria, than on differences in the forms of the parasite found in 
the blood. 
Phagocytosis in Frogs and Birds.! — As another contribution to the 
doctrine of Phagocytes, Herr Danilewski records his experiments on 
frogs and birds. Blood infected with hasmogregarinm was transfused in 
the anterior abdominal vein of frogs. In 1 2 to 1 hour the foreign cor- 
puscles were found to have been picked up by the large phagocytes of 
the frog. The haemoglobin of the corpuscles soon vanishes, in a few 
hours the contour has become less visible, and in two or three days the 
parasite alone remains. Finally even this latter becomes more trans- 
parent so that at last only the empty cuticular sac and the bright 
nucleus of the blood-corpuscle are left. If the corpuscle contains only 
an early condition of the parasite then its destruction is all the more 
rapid, owing to the want of a cuticle. Observations were best effected 
by sucking the infected blood with some air into a flattened capillary 
tube ; in this way they could be carried on for two or three days at a 
temperature of 36°-39°. 
* Nordeskt Med. Arcliiv (Stockholm), xxi. (1889) pp. 1-12. See Centralbl. f. 
Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., viii. (1890) pp. 591-3. 
f La Semaine Med., 1890, No. 27. See Centralbl f. Bacteriol. u. Parasitenk., 
viii. (1890) p. 559. 
X Annsdes de l’lnstitut Pasteur, iv. (1890) p. 432. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., viii. (1890) p. 710. 
