764 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [46] 



which cover the bothria are composed of dense granular tissue. The 

 convolutions in this specimen are rather narrow, measuring ,014 min in 

 diameter. The sections very soon reveal the presence of what appear 

 to be strong longitudinal fibers, their cut ends measuring as much as 

 .OOG IU1 " in diameter, A little deeper and sections of large aquiferous 

 vessels appear in each lobe, and the large muscular fibers become in- 

 distinctly fascicled. The irregularly sinuous aquiferous vessels trav- 

 erse the bothria and unite in each pedicel into large vessels which lie 

 so close together as to resemble a double tube. These evidently repre- 

 sent the afferent and the efferent vessel of each bothrium. A branch 

 of this system near the face of a bothrium, in close vicinity to the con- 

 volutions, measured .027 and .022 mm in its two diameters ; in the pedi- 

 cel they were .032 mra in diameter. 



Near the base of each pedicel and lying near the aquiferous vessels 

 there is what appears to be a nervous mass from which branches 

 ramify to the convolutions of the bothria. These branches, as well as 

 the mass from which they originate, are sharply differentiated from the 

 surrounding tissue, are neither tubular nor striated, but uniformly 

 and finely granular. (Plate V, Fig. 1.) 



The first sections to pass through the head are cruciform in outline. 

 It is here seen that many of the large muscles seen in the first sections 

 and supposed to be longitudinal are really transverse. Two fascicles 

 of these muscles from each pedicel cross the head, are continuous with 

 those of the opposite pedicel and at right angles to those belonging to 

 the adjacent pedicels, thus forming a square in the center of the section. 

 The inside of this square is filled with fine granular tissues. Following 

 these sections are others which show fascicles of muscles passing from 

 the base of one pedicel into the adjacent pedicels through whose tissues 

 they ramify. Th^se fascicles make a decussation in each axilla. Out- 

 side of each decussation there is a bundle of coarse longitudinal fibers 

 in each axilla. 



Two of the sections through the center of the head have a large cen- 

 tral space filled with fine granular tissues from which branches proceed 

 into each pedicel. I take this to represent the cephalic nervous system. 

 A section which passes through the base of the head has a large rect- 

 angular central space .32 min long and .24 mm broad, surrounded and limited 

 by a layer of fine circular fibers and containing the large aquiferous 

 vessels which here lie in loose coils. The remainder of the body wall 

 outside the layer of circular fibers is composed of a layer of longitudinal 

 fascicles of muscles which extends to the cuticular layer. This section 

 passes'a short distance into the pedicels which are here composed of 

 large muscular fibers from the outer layer of longitudinal muscles. A 

 few sections farther back the central space which contains the coils of 

 aquiferous vessels is more nearly square, Plate IV, Fig. 8. The sur- 

 rounding layer of circular tissue sends out numerous branches which 

 ramify through the surrounding layer of longitudinal fibers forming a 



