288 
Intestinal Protozoa in Termites 
appears denser, but contains no food debris, while a large number of minute 
globular bodies, staining deeply with eosin and faintly with iron-haematoxylin, 
are found scattered in it. The nucleus, suspended in the endoplasm, becomes 
gradually hypertrophied and disintegrated. The axial filament also disinte¬ 
grates by a somewhat peculiar process; it does not become detached from the 
anterior end of the body—as it does during division—but remains fixed in 
its normal position and becomes strongly curled into a rather regular spiral 
(PL XIV, fig. 63). In degenerating nuclei the network becomes indistinct, until 
finally it vanishes entirely. The karyosomes break up into irregularly shaped 
and ill-defined masses of chromatin, isolated from each other or fused together. 
In Fig. 64 is shown a nucleus at an advanced stage of degeneration, with 
several clumps of chromatic substance, stained rather faintly with haema- 
toxylin, embedded fin a coarsely granular ground substance. The clumps 
stain more faintly and their contour gradually becomes less distinct. Hand 
in hand with the above changes, the nuclear wall becomes thinner and the 
globules in the endoplasm increase in number, especially in the vicinity of 
the nucleus. The filament also becomes gradually indistinct, and soon dis¬ 
appears, apparently dissolving in the endoplasm. 
The process of physiological degeneration has been more or less thoroughly 
investigated in artificially cultivated individuals of several forms of free- 
living Protozoa by R. Hertwig, Prandtl, and others. As regards tissue- 
parasites, there are also some descriptions by Schaudinn and Leger of de¬ 
generation observed in Coccidia. Regarding the other intestinal Protozoa, 
however, few accounts have hitherto been given. Moreover the process in 
Pyrsonympha shows some interesting peculiarities. How is it that such an 
uncommon phenomenon is seen in this species? This is a question of con¬ 
siderable interest, and I am of the opinion that the answer is to be sought 
in certain peculiarities both of the protozoon itself and also of the intestinal 
wall 6f its host. In the other forms leading a free-swimming life in the cavity 
of the gut, individuals inclined to degenerate cannot long remain in the in¬ 
testine, but sooner or later are cast out. In Pyrsonympha, however, the body 
is firmly united to the intestinal wall, and the mode of attachment is peculiar. 
It is not a cell of the intestine, but its covering layer of chitin, to which the 
animalcules are attached; and it is not by means of the soft part of the body, 
but by a special rigid structure, that the connexion is maintained. The 
attachment is thus purely mechanical, and does, not depend upon the vital 
activity of the flagellate. It seems, therefore, highly probable that the animal¬ 
cules may remain fixed in position, regardless of their state of vitality; so 
that if they die or degenerate, they do not pass out of the body, like the 
forms living freely, but remain, though dying and even dead, still suspended 
from the intestinal wall. 
