754 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Haematozoa of the Frog 1 .* — M. A. Labre has made some observations 
on the Sporozoa and Flagellata which are found as parasites in the 
blood of the Frog. The former are divisible into two groups, the first 
of which is represented by the Drepanidium of Ray Lankester. The 
author has observed two specimens, either free in the serum or in the 
same blood-corpuscle, approach and fuse by one of their extremities. 
The fusion goes on until the two form a V, the branches of which are 
fused along a certain length. We have here to do with a true con- 
jugation, similar to that seen in Infusoria. Encystation — though the 
word is inexact — is similar to that observed in the swarm-spore-cysts 
of Coccidia ; the parasite folds itself in such a way as to bring its two 
extremities into contact, fusion goes on slowly, and ends in the forma- 
tion of a rounded or oval protoplasmic body, in which the vacuoles soon 
disappear, and which exhibits amoeboid movements. The most common 
mode of reproduction is by spores, which resemble those of the Micro- 
sporidia. The second group of the Sporozoa is represented by Haemata- 
moebae, the smallest of which are like pseudonavicellae ; the latter form 
spores. 
The author calls attention to the presence in the blood of a true 
Polymitus, 16 p wide, with three or four flagella, 40-50 p long. 
Presence of bodies resembling Psorosperms in Squamous Epi- 
thelioma.t — M. Vincent has found in various forms of epithelioma, 
bodies which he, like other writers, regards as psorosperms. The bodies 
in question may be as large as the cells of the Malpighian layer, and 
according to the age of the parasite, are invested with a thinner or 
thicker highly refracting membrane. The protoplasm is rarely homo- 
geneous, usually granular, and frequently contains large pigment- 
granules. The nucleus may be absent, double, or of very various shapes. 
It is not unusual to find several of these bodies inclosed in the same 
membrane, their form being roundish or altered by compression. 
The cysts lie in the epithelial cells, the nucleus of which seems 
pushed on one side ; they may be found in the centre of the cancerous 
masses alone or in accumulations. These bodies are stained with great 
difficulty, but the following was the most successful procedure. Very 
thin sections were treated for a moment with ammonia, washed in water, 
and then immersed for five minutes in a saturated watery solution of 
safranin. Some of the colour was then removed with 1 per cent, acetic 
acid, and then having been washed with water, they were decolorized in 
alcohol until they assumed a rose colour. Then oil of cloves and balsam. 
The psorosperms are stained red, the surrounding cells yellow or violet. 
The author does not appear to have noticed any spore formation in his 
psorosperms. Cultivation experiments were failures. 
Polymitus malari8e .| — Polymitus is found, says Prof. B. Danilewsky, 
in the blood of birds and men affected with malaria, as a spheroidal 
protoplasmic parasite possessed of several very mobile flagella. On the 
surface are usually observable some dark melanin granules. A few 
* Comptes Rendus, cxiii. (1891) pp. 479-81. 
t Annales de Micrographie, ii. (1890) Nos. 10-11. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. 
u, Parasitenk., ix. (1891) pp. 383-4. 
X Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., ix. (1891) pp. 397-403 (6 figs.). 
