NEW TYPE OF PKOTISTAN PARASITE. 
431 
On a Remarkable New Type of Protistan 
Parasite. 
By 
H. m. Wo«€lcoc*k, D.Sc., aii«l C*. 
With Plates 29 and 30 and 2 Text-figures. 
In the course of a study of the flagellates, which develope 
ill simple cultures of goaPs dung, we were afforded recently 
the opportunity, by the kindness of Drs. E. H. Ross and 
J. W. Cropper, of examining the contents of the rumen and 
other parts of the digestive tract of a goat, with a view to 
ascertaining what flagellates occurred in the active condition 
in the goat. The results of our observations in this connec- 
tion Avill be dealt with in another memoir. The object of this 
communication is to describe certain remarkable parasites 
which we found, which appear to be of a nature quite distinct 
from any other protist of which we are aware. These 
parasites occur under two characteristic forms, which we have 
distinguished respectively^ as crescents and ovals. We are 
strongly inclined to regard these two principal ty^pes as being 
different phases of one parasite. We have examined, up to 
the present, six goats, and in the rumen of each, either the 
crescents, or the ovals, or both forms have occurred iu 
enormous numbers — far exceeding those of the ciliates or 
ordinary flagellates present. A comparison of the occurrence 
of the two forms is given in the following table : 
