MYXOSPORIDIA, or fish psorosperms, are Protozoa belonging to the class Sporozoa. They are characteristic fish parasites. occurring on the gills, in the skin and muscles, and free in swimming bladder, gall bladder and urinary bladder. Serious epidemics and common dis eases among fishes are due to their excessive multiplication under favorable circumstances. The spores which are produced in large num bers in the protoplasm of their bodies contain I, 2 or 4 polar capsules with a coiled thread like the nematocysts of the hydra.
14th letter of the English and sev eral other alphabets is classed as a dental-nasal consonant; it is pro nounced when a voiced sound is emitted through the nose while the tip of the tongue is in contact either with the front upper teeth or with the front of the palate; the posi tion of the tongue, whether touching the teeth or the palate, distinguishes the n of one lan guage from that of another; the n of English speech is produced by placing the point of the tongue against the palate just behind the gums. When n is followed by a gutteral either the n and the gutteral form one nasal sound, as in ring, or the n becomes distinctly gutteral and the gutteral retains its own sound-value, as in rink; but when the is and the gutteral belong to dif ferent syllables, as in the words engage, include, concave, unkind, the is usually retains its pure sound; yet the rule has many exceptions recog nized by orthoepists, who while they regard the n of syncarpy, syncretist, as pure, mark the n of syncope and many other words as nasal, equal to ng. In words ending with is preceded immediately by 1 or in, the n is silent: kiln, hymn the beginning of a word a consonant preceding n is silent: know, gneiss, mnemonic, pneumatic. In many words is seen an intrusive is, as in passenger, messenger, though the words from which these are formed, passage, message, have no n. The initial n of newt, nickname, and a few other words is the n of the indefinite article which became inseparably attached to ewt, ekename, etc.; conversely, by dropping the initial n in the forms nadder, nauger, napron became adder, auger, apron.
The alphabetical character n has remained al most unaltered in shape from Phoenician to English. See ALPHABET; PHONETICS.
a supposed form of new radiation discovered by M. Blondlot, while experimenting upon the polarization of the X-rays. The rays were said to be invisible, but could be de flected, and by means of appropriate screens could be seen, and were marked out in great detail by Blondlot and his followers. These rays were declared to be susceptible to the attraction of gravitation; and were decided to lie in wave-length between the shortest electro magnetic rays and the longest of Rubens rays. Many interesting discoveries were supposed to be made concerning the N-rays; they were de tected as issuing from various objects in a state of tension or torsion, such as a cane forcibly bent; a stick of crystallized sulphur; compressed rubber; ice at zero; or a piece of tempered steel: the rays disappeared when the temper was drawn. An eminent French physi ologist asserted that he had seen these rays is suing from muscles, when active, and from nerves after death. One curious thing about the supposed rays was that, while some of the observers could see them clearly, others were quite unable to see them, nor could their in struments detect their operation. Blondlot and his disciples asserted that this was due to the fact that those who were unable to see the rays possessed defective vision, and that, while the rays really existed, only those peculiarly endowed could perceive them. Two other forms of these rays were announced, the rays and the Nrrays. These rays were be lieved in for several months by an increasing number of eminent scientists, though doubt as to their existence had begun to be aroused, when experimenter after experimenter failed to detect them. Finally, after a prolonged series of experiments the conclusion was reached that these rays were subjective in character and had no real existence. A sum mary of the very voluminous literature pub lished on the subject may be found in the Journal of the Franklin Institute (Vol. CLXIV, Philadelphia 1907).