Under this term the author describes protoplasmic bodies which Miura, in Tokyo, found in the serous fluid of a woman, aged 26, who had died from pleuritis and peritonitis endotheliomatosa. Two days before death these same forms had also appeared in the hæmorrhagic fæces of the patient. The bodies were usually spherical or ellipsoidal, and at one pole carried a small protuberance (fig. 12) beset with filamentous short “pseudopodia” (really a pseudopodium covered with cilia). Their size varied between 15 µ and 38 µ. The cytoplasm was finely granular, and no difference was observable in the ecto- and endo-plasm, only the villous appendage was clearer. The cytoplasm contained vacuoles more or less numerous, none of which was contractile. After the addition of acetic acid one to three nuclei could be distinguished, 8 µ to 15 µ in size. Actual movements were not observed. Taking everything into consideration, the independent nature of these bodies is, to say the least, doubtful, although it cannot be denied that they possess a certain similarity to the marine Amœba fluida, Grüber or Greeff, and to a few other species. (It is likely that cells present in serous exudation were mistaken for amœbæ.)
Appendix.
“Rhizopods in Poliomyelitis acuta.”
In three cases of poliomyelitis acuta which were investigated by Ellermann, the spinal fluid obtained by puncture of the cord contained bodies, from 10 µ to 15 µ in size, which had amœboid movements and exhibited variously shaped pseudopodia in large numbers. After staining, a usually excentric nucleus, about 1·5 µ in size, was demonstrated in them.
Order. Foraminifera, d’Orbigny.
The order is divided by Max Schultze into Monothalamia and Polythalamia. Only a few of the former can be considered here.
Sub-Order. Monothalamia. (Testaceous Amœbæ).
These forms occur frequently in fresh water, rarely in sea water. They possess a shell which is either pseudo-chitinous in character, or consists of foreign particles, or in a few cases is composed of siliceous lamellæ. There is usually an orifice for the protrusion of pseudopodia. The only representative of the order of interest here is:—
Genus. Chlamydophrys, Cienkowski, 1876.