204 
PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 
intestinal canal as characteristic of their class, but have no mouth, and, 
like the tapeworms and Echinorliynchi, absorb nourishment through 
the exterior surface of the body. Such is the case with the genus 
Anoplophrya of Stein, typified by the Anoplophrya lumbrici, found in 
the intestine of our common earth-worms, as well as in those of 
Europe. Professor Leidy had also detected the same species in the 
little wood-worm, Enchytrceus socialis, and had found two other species, 
formerly described by him under the names of Leucophrys clavata and 
Leucophrys cocMeariformis, in the intestine of Lumbriculus limosus and 
L. tenuis. Recently in dissecting the fresh-water snail, Paludina 
decisa, while examining the branchiae he observed several individuals 
of an Anoplophrya moving actively, as if in antagonism with the 
ciliary motion of the branchial plates. Seeking the source of the little 
creatures he found that they came from the rectum of the Paludina. 
In examining other individuals of this snail he observed that some 
were free, others were infested with few, and some with multitudes of 
the infusorian. In several instances the Anoplophryce were so abundant 
as to resemble in their crowded condition a mass of writhing worms, 
actually distending the portion of the intestine they occupied. The 
species appears to be an undescribed one, aud is interesting from its 
comparatively large size. It was named and described as follows : — 
Anoploplirya vermicularis. Body cylindrical, slightly tapering pos- 
teriorly, rounded at the extremities, or subacute behind ; flattened at 
the anterior extremity ; translucent white, finely striated longitudi- 
nally, uniformly clothed with short cilia ; internally finely granular, 
with a longitudinal cylindrical nucleus occupying nearly the length 
of the axis, and with from twenty to thirty contractile vesicles, mostly 
arranged in one, but often in two longitudinal series. Length from 
two-fifths to one-half a millimeter; breadth in front • 044 to ‘048 
mm., behind * 032 to • 04 mm. Besides the movements of progression 
induced by the cilia, the animal wriggles in a sigmoid manner and 
even doubles on itself. The contractile vesicles may contract more or 
less successively to mere points, but apparently at no time entirely 
disappear, and they may enlarge to double their usual size. The axial 
nucleus is at first barely susceptible, but becomes very obvious as the 
animal approaches dissolution. Incidentally Professor Leidy also 
stated that Aspidocjaster conchicola, so common in the pericardium of 
Anodonta and Unio, he had also found in one instance in the oviduct 
of Paludina decisa. 
Pecent Researches on the Entomophthorece. — A recent essay on this 
subject, which appeared in the ‘ Botanische Zeitung ’ for April, and 
was followed by a second in the number for June, have been 
abstracted — as alone a botanist interested in the question could 
abstract them— by Mr. S. Moore in the ‘Journal of Botany’ for 
August. The two papers are entitled “ Ucber die Entomophthoreen 
und iliro Verwandten,” Von Dr. Oscar Brefeld; and “Die copulation 
bei einigen Entomophthoreen,” Von Dr. Leon Nowakowsky; and Mr. 
Moore comments on them as follows : — The question as to the sexuality 
or asexuality of some groups of fungi is, in these two memoirs, 
shifted from the Basidio- and Ascomycetes, to which it has recently 
been confined, to a group much lower in the scale. The first-named 
