W. S. Patton 
145 
Ten of the haemogregarines found in the above snakes have been 
made new species. Dr Satnbon however tells us very little about the 
methods he employed when studying these haemogregarines; the snakes 
were examined at the Prosectorium of the Zoological Society’s Gardens, 
and were dead, I suppose, at the time Dr Sambon made his discoveries. 
I presume therefore, that as Dr Sambon considers himself an authority 
on these parasites, he does not think it necessary to tell his readers about 
the methods which have led to his discovery of the sexual cycle of the 
haemogregarines. 
In his classification of the Haemoprotozoa he tells us the haemo- 
gregarine ookinete encysts and produces sporozoites in secondary 
cysts or sporebags. I am quite at a loss to understand this very mis¬ 
leading statement, unless it is that Dr Sambon is anxious to be the first 
to predict the probable method of sexual reproduction of the haemogre¬ 
garines. Judging from a recent leading article in the Journal of 
Tropical Medicine and Hygiene , Dr Sambon is said to have the gift of 
prophecy or the rare talent of drawing reasonable inferences from the 
analogy of established truths. Yet I hope to show, that his inferences 
regarding the life cycles of the haemogregarines are, at present at any 
rate, premature. Every Protozoologist now knows, that the great interest 
attached to these parasites lies in the discovery of their complete life 
cycles, yet there is not at present a single convincing description of such 
a cycle. The mere recording of new species is now of little interest, 
as these parasites are so numerous, that anyone who looks with some 
degree of care in the blood of mammals and reptiles can hardly fail to 
discover them. 
In Dr Sambon’s opening paragraph on the haemogregarines of 
snakes he states that he proposes “ to gather all the scattered informa¬ 
tion concerning haemogregarines in general.” Had he only limited 
himself to this, and recorded the parasites he found in snakes, no one 
could have taken any exception to his statements, but when he proceeds 
to interpret the observations of others it is obvious he is not in a posi¬ 
tion to do so. Speaking of Lankesterella minima he says, “ in 1871 Ray 
Lankester also noticed and figured the sporonts of H. minima.'’ I would 
like to ask how Dr Sambon knows that the free vermicules of L. minima 
as figured by Lankester (1871) represent the sporonts of the parasite ? 
By this term I understand that stage of a protozoon which is destined to 
undergo sporogony, wherever that may take place. Lankester himself 
says nothing to lead me to think he considered the free vermicules were 
sporonts. Surely Dr Sambon does not expect his readers to accept this 
Parasitology ii 10 
