INFORMATION (from

See also:

• LAT

Lat. informare, to give shape or

See also:

• FORM (Lat. forma)

form to, to represent, describe)  , the communication of knowledge; in English law, a proceeding on behalf of the crown against a subject otherwise than by indictment . A criminal information is a proceeding in the King's bench by the attorney-general without the intervention of a grand jury . The attorney-general, or, in his absence, the solicitor-general, has a right ex officio to file a criminal information in respect of any indictments, but not for treason, felonies or misprision of treason . It is, however, seldom exercised, except in cases which might be described as " enormous misdemeanours," such as those peculiarly tending to disturb or endanger the king's government, e.g. seditions, obstructing the king's officers in the execution of their duties, &c . In the form of the proceedings the attorney-general is said the boarders at the school took the quinine in the presence I to " come into the court of our lord the king before the king of a master every morning, there were scarcely any cases of himself at Westminster, and gives the court there to under-influenza among them, although the home boarders suffered stand and be informed that, &c." Then follows the statement nearly as much as before." He continues, " In a large girls' of the offence as in an indictment . The information is filed in school near London the same thing was ordered, and the girls the crown office without the leave of the court . An information and mistresses took their morning dose but the servants were forgotten . The result was that scarcely any girl or mistress suffered while the servants were all down with influenza." The liability to contract influenza, and the danger of an attack if contracted, are increased by depressing conditions, such as and for aggravated libels on public or private persons . Leave exposure to cold and to fatigue, whether mental or physical . 1 to file an information is obtained after an application to show Attention should, therefore, be paid to all measures tending to cause, founded on a sworn statement of the material facts of the maintenance of health . Persons who are attacked by influenza the case . should at once seek rest, warmth and medical treatment, and Certain suits might also be filed in Chancery by way of informa- they should bear in mind that the risk of relapse, with serious tion in the name of the attorney-general, but this species of complications, constitutes a chief danger of the disease. information was superseded by Order 1, rule 1 of the Rules of In addition to the ordinary text-books, see the series of articles the Supreme Court, 1883, under which they are instituted in-the by experts on different aspects in The Practitioner (London) for ordinary way .

Informations in the Court of

Exchequer in January 1907. revenue cases, also filed by the attorney-general, are still resorted IN FORMA PAUPERIS (Latin, " in the character of pauper "), to (see A.-G. v . Williamson, 1889, 6o L.T . 930) . the legal phrase for a method of bringing or defending a case INFORMER, in a general sense, one who communicates in court on the part of persons without means . By an English information . The term is applied to a person who prosecutes statute of 1495 (11 Hen . VII. c . 12), any poor person having in any of the courts of law those who break any law or penal cause of action was entitled to have a writ according to the nature statute . Such a person is called a common informer when he of the case, without paying the fees thereon . The statute of furnishes evidence on criminal trials or prosecutes for breaches 1495 was repealed by the Statute Law Revision and Civil of penal laws solely for the purpose of obtaining the penalty Procedure Act 1883, but its provisions, as well as the chancery recovered, or a share of it . An action by a common informer There is no routine treatment for influenza except bed . In all cases bed is advisable, because of the danger of lung complications, and in mild ones it is sufficient .

Severer ones must be treated according to the symptoms . Quinine has been much used .

Modern " anti-pyretic " drugs hate also been extensively employed, and when applied with discretion they may be useful, but patients are not advised to prescribe them for them-selves . Sir Wm . Broadbent in a note on the prophylaxis of influenza recommends quinine in a dose of two grains every morning, and remarks: " I have had opportunities of obtaining extraordinary evidence of its protective power . In a large public school it was ordered to be taken every morning . Some of the boys in the school were home boarders, and it was found that while 1 57 . . .. . .. . .. 222 ,22 . 0 0 0 0 0 0 to ti 0 m o q f0 C1 m W G1 may also be filed at the instance of a private prosecutor for misdemeanours not affecting the government, but being peculiarly flagrant and pernicious .

Thus criminal informations have been granted for bribing or attempting to bribe public functionaries, 1 . Opalinopsis sepiolae, Foett.: a parasitic Holotrichous mouthless Ciliate from the

liver of the Squid. a, branched meganucleus; b, vacuoles (non-contractile) . 2 . A similar specimen treated with picrocarmine, showing a remarkably branched and twisted meganucleus (a), in place of several nuclei . 3 . Anoplophrya naidos, Duj.; a mouth-less Holotrichous Ciliate parasitic in the worm Nais. a, the large axial meganucleus; b, contractile vacuoles . 4 . Anoplophrya proltfera, C. and L.; from the intestine of Clitellio . Remark-able for the adhesion of incomplete fission-products in a metameric series. a, meganucleus . 5 . Amphileptus gigas, C. and L . (Gymnostomaceae). b, contractile vacuoles; c, trichocysts (see fig .

2); d, mega-

nucleus; e. pharynx . 6, 7 . Prorodon niveus, Ehr . (Gymnostomaceae). a, meganucleus; b, contractile vacuole; c, pharynx with horny cuticular lining . 6 . The fasciculate cuticle of the pharynx isolated . INFUSORIA 557 men, they included (r) Desmids, Diatoms and Schizomycetes, now regarded as essentially Plant Protista or Protophytes; (2) Sarcodina (excluding Foraminifera, as well as Radiolaria, which were only as yet known by their skeletons, and termed Polycystina), and (3) Rotifers, as well as (4) Flagellates and Infusoria in our present sense . F . Dujardin in his Ilistoire des zoophytes (1841) gave nearly as liberal an interpretation to the name; while C . T . Van Siebold (1845) narrowed it to its present limits save for the admission of several Flagellate families . O .

Butschli limited the

group by removing the Flagel- lata, Dinoflagellata and Cystoflagellata (q.v.)under the name of " Mastigophora " proposed earlier by R . M . Diesing (1865) . We now define it thus: —Protozoa bounded by a permanent plasmic pellicle and consequently of definite form, never using pseudopodia for locomotion or ingestion, provided (at least in the young state) with ce numerous cilia or organs derived from cilia and equipped with a double nuclear apparatus: the larger (mega') nucleus usually dividing by constriction, and disappearing during conjugation: the smaller (micro-) nucleus (sometimes multiple) dividing by mitosis, and entering into conjugation and giving rise to the cycle of nuclei both large and small of the race succeeding conjugation . Thus defined, the Infusoria fall into two groups:—(r) Ciliata, with cilia or organs derived from cilia throughout their lives, provided with a single permanent mouth (absent in the parasitic Opalinopsidae) flush with the body or at the base of an oral depression, and taking in food by active swallowing or by ciliary action: (2) Suetoria, rarely ciliated except in the young state, } and taking in their food by suction through pro-q trusible hollow tentacles, usually numerous . The pellicle of the Infusoria is stronger and more permanent than in many Protozoa, and sometimes assumes the character of a mail of hard plates, closely fitting; but even in this case it undergoes solution soon after death . It is continuous with a firm ectosarc, highly differentiated in the Ciliata, and in both groups free from coarse movable granules . The endosarc is semifluid and rich in granules mostly " reserve " in nature, often showing proteid or fat reactions . One or more contractile vacuoles are pre-sent in some of the marine and all the freshwater species, and open to the surface by pores of permanent position: a system of canals in the deeper layers of the ectoplasm is sometimes connected with the vacucle . The body is often provided with not-living external formations " stalk " and " theca " (or lorica ") . The character of the nuclear apparatus excludes two groups both parasitic and mouthless: (I) the Trichonymphidae, with a single nucleus of Leidy, parasitic in Insects, especially Termites; (2) the Opalinidae, with several (often numerous) uniform nuclei, parasitic in the gut of Batrachia, &c., and producing 1-nuclear zoospores which conjugate . Both these families we unite into a group of Pseudociliata, which may be referred to the Flagellate (q.v.) .

Lankester in the last edition of this

Encyclopaedia called attention to the doubtful position of Opalina, and Delage and Herouard placed Trichonymphidae among Flagellates . The theca or shell is present in some pelagic species (fig. iii . 3, 5) and in many of the attached species, notably among the Peritricha (fig. iii . 21, 22, 25, 26) and Suctoria (fig. viii . II); and is found in some free-swimming forms (fig. iii . 3, 5): it is usually chitinous, and forms a cup into which the animal, protruded when at its utmost elongation, can retract itself . In Metacineta mystacina it has several distinct slits (pylomes) for the passage of tufts of tentacles . In Stentor it is gelatinous; and in the Dictyocystids it is beautifully latticed . The stalk is usually solid, and expanded at the base into a disk in Suctoria . In Peritrichaceae (fig. iii . 8-22, 25, 26), the only ciliate group with a stalk, it grows for some time after its formation, and on fission two new stalks continue the old one, so as to form a branched colony (fig. iii . 18) .

In

Vorticella (fig. iii . II, 12, 14, &c.) the stalk is hollow and elastic, and attached to it along a spiral is a is termed a popular or qui tam action, because it is brought by a person qui tam pro domino rege quanz pro se ipso sequitur . A suit by an informermust be brought within a year of the offence, unless a specific time is prescribed by the statute . The term informer is also used of an accomplice in crime who turns what is called " king's evidence " (see ACCOMPLICE) . In Scotland, informer is the term applied to the party who, in criminal proceedings, sets the lord advocate in motion .