580 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Chain -forming Peridinium.* — Herr K. M. Levander describes 
from Finland seas Peridinium catenatum sp. n. which forms, apparently 
by division, chains of 2-8 and sometimes as many as 16 individuals. A 
hollowing of the posterior end of the body is regarded as an adaptation 
to the occurrence of chains. The shell, whose structure is very like 
that of P. tabulatum, is furnished with minute pores, which may be 
openings for protrusible trichocyst-like threads. These threads have 
not hitherto been observed in Dinoflagellata, except in the very diver- 
gent Polykrikos , which has highly differentiated stinging filaments. 
Flagella.f — Herr A. Fischer by using Loffier’s method has dis- 
covered many intricacies in flagella. There are two chief forms in 
flagellate infusorians — the ciliary flagellum or Flimmergeissel and the 
whip flagellum or Peitschengeissel. The ciliary flagellum consists of a 
homogeneous thread bearing one or several rows of delicate pointed 
“ cilia,” as in Euglena viridis and Monas guttula. The whip flagellum 
consists of a thick stalk and a twice or three- times longer lash, as in 
Polytoma, Bodo, Chlorogonium. The forms of flagella are useful as 
generic characteristics. Their sensitiveness is shown by their being 
thrown off, and by various changes which have misled some observers. 
Thus the fragments of a broken lash may hang on the stalk or handle 
of the whip-flagellum. No retraction was ever seen, but there are 
various forms of disruption. 
Living Parasites in the Blood of Cancerous Persons.f— Dr. M. 
Kahane asserts that if pieces of tumours are placed in sterilized 
physiological salt solution immediately after removal and straightway 
microscopically examined, bodies endowed with lively characteristic 
movements may be observed. The movements are such as are only to be 
explained by the presence of cilia or flagella. The bodies are amoebi- 
form, highly refracting corpuscles. These micramoebse are free in the 
blood-plasma, but may be seen to enter red corpuscles, within which 
their lively movements continue. When dead they have a roundish 
contour, and are not to be distinguished from blood-plates. The presence 
of these bodies resembling swarm-spores suggested to the author that 
the plasmodium-form might be found. This is described as a body 
having processes like the sails of a windmill, and was made more visible 
by means of methylen-blue. The author finds that he is unable to 
resist the impression that his parasite morphologically and biologically 
resembles the parasite of malaria. 
* Acta Soc. pro Fauna et Flora Fennica, ix. (1894) 19 pp., 1 pi., 4 figs. 
f Jahrb. wiss. Bot., xxvi. (1894) pp. 187-235 (2 pis.). ^ 
i Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xv. (1894) pp. 413-9. 
