PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 
115 
when sown on a glass slide, under a cover-glass, the spermatia 
germinated more readily on the side next the gummed label. 
New Infusoria . — At one of the meetings of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences, Philadelphia, Dr. Leidy stated that, in seeking small animals 
beneath stones and decaying logs in our forests, and observing the 
common white ants, Termes flavipes, he noticed that the intestine 
seen through the translucent abdomen appeared distended with brown 
matter. Feeling curious to know the nature of the food of the insect, 
on examining the abundant intestinal contents, he was surprised to 
find enormous quantities of infusorial and other parasites. The brown 
matter appears to be minute fragments of vegetable matter, mainly 
decaying wood, hut it not only occupies the intestine of the ants, but 
in some cases in greater part is distributed as morsels of food occupy- 
ing the interior of the parasites. In many instances the parasites are 
so numerous as to make up the greater portion of the bulk of the 
intestinal contents of the ants, and may be estimated by millions. As 
the discovery was a recent one, he was not able yet to say to what 
extent these ants were generally infected with the parasites, but he 
had found every individual that he had examined collected from a 
single nest containing them. The, to him, new world of parasites 
exhibited five different kinds, of which there are infusoria with cilia, 
and the others are vegetal in character. The latter consisted of a 
filamentous algous plant, and a spiral bacterium. One of the ciliate 
infusoria is a remarkable form, apparently different from any hereto- 
fore described, and therefore has been referred to a new genus under 
the name Trichonymplia agilis. The animal is about of an inch 
long, and about half the breadth of the length. It is fusiform, and is 
clothed with cilia of extraordinary length, some of them extending 
from the head, one-third the length of the body beyond its posterior 
extremity. The arrangement of these cilia, clothing the body, re- 
minded him of the nymphs of a recent spectacular drama, in which 
they appeared with their nakedness barely concealed by long cords 
suspended from the shoulders, and this arrangement suggested to 
him the name he has applied to the species. This animalcule did 
not seem to possess a mouth similar to that found in nearly related 
forms, and yet the presence of solid food in the interior indicates the 
existence of a mouth. To determine the exact structure of the creature 
requires more time than he has yet been able to devote to it, but on 
superficial inspection the interior appears to be composed of two 
principal portions, an anterior oval finely granular body, connected 
with a posterior larger and more coarsely granular mass. The animal, 
although actively and incessantly in motion, remains stationary in 
position. The chief movement consists in frequent retraction or 
shortening and bending of the head end, with narrowing and lengthen- 
ing or shortening of the whole body, with swelling outwardly and 
waving downward or backward of the long cilia, and waving of the 
shorter ones at the summit of the head. The second infusorian, for 
which the name Pyrsonympha vertens is proposed, is larger but less 
frequent than the former. It is about of an inch in length. It is 
also more active in its motions, less distinctly defined, and of greater 
delicacy, so that it undergoes rapid destruction, while the other is 
