356 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
tosus Eorotneff.* The new parasites, found mostly in tlie centre of 
epithelioma nests, are of variable size and shape. They are sometimes 
round, sometimes elongated, and frequently irregular, and occasionally 
give off lateral branches. When small they lie in the cell protoplasm, 
aud as they become larger pseudopodial processes are extended which 
may stretch for some distance and even penetrate other cells. The 
parasite appears to lie in a vacuole, for a clear space between its outline 
and the cell plasma is clearly distinguishable. In the larger, older forms 
one, two, or three nuclei are discernible ; these are faintly granular 
bodies, and stain more strongly than the rest of the protoplasm ; they 
do not contain chromatin threads or nucleoli. In some of the parasites 
a dark brown pigment could be perceived. 
The author is convinced of the parasitic nature of these bodies, and 
states that they are easily seen under medium powers ( x 300-100) and 
can be made out without staining the preparations if these have been 
hardened in a fluid containing osmic acid, as then they assume a dark 
brown hue. 
The specimens were hardened in Flemming’s fluid and the sections 
stained in various ways, e. g. borax-ammonia-alum and picrocarmine, 
hasmatoxylin, saffranin, methyl- violet, &c. The most successful prepara- 
tions were treated with saffranin and afterwards with picric acid- 
alcohol. 
Cancer Parasite.! — Herr Sawtschenko considers that the reason 
why some observers deny the presence of Sporozoa in carcinoma, is due 
to confusion between true Sporozoa and appearances having a superficial 
resemblance thereto. He holds that the round intracellular bodies, 
apparently invested with a capsule and exhibiting metachromatism, are 
non-parasitic cell inclusions, and that certain colour reactions are 
merely indicative of mucin and not of Sporozoa. Yet there is a close 
connection, for the formation of the mucous vacuole is brought about by 
the penetration of Sporozoa into the cell plasma, the parasite not un- 
frequently being found in the vacuole, though the vacuole may contain 
only mucin. 
The author states that both plasma and nucleus of parasitic Sporozoa 
are stainable at all stages of development with anilin dyes, and have the 
same staining reaction as the tissue cells of the tumour. With magenta- 
red for example the mucin is metachromatized to violet, while the nucleus 
of the parasites and of the cancer cells is coloured red. In size the 
parasite is usually very small, and in its amoeboid form is spheroidal or 
oval, with deeply staining nucleus and finely granular protoplasm. 
Propagation takes place after the manner common to Gregarinae and 
Coccidia, and the spores when fully formed are spindle-shaped or fish- 
like. The number of spores is variable, and when they have penetrated 
into the cell plasma they may either assume the characters of the adult 
parasite or retain for some time the pyriform shape. Both the embryonic 
and amoeboid forms are mobile and may wander from one cell to another 
and leave behind as legacy large vacuoles filled with mucus. 
The author has never observed an encapsuled parasite, which if they 
* See this Journal, 1893, p. 649. 
t Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xv. (1894) pp. 485-7. 
