No. 2.] JVOTES ON DISTOMUM PATELLARE. 65 



able that this pseudo-cuticle was formed, not by the subcuticular 

 cells, but by cells of similar origin of which the subcuticular 

 cells and possibly the subcuticula are traces. 



2. The Relation of the Giant-cells to Nerves and Muscles. - 

 Monticelli 5 identifies the giant-cells with ganglion cells, show- 

 ing that they are in some parts of the body directly connected 

 with nerves, and his work is confirmed by Schuberg, 12 although 

 the nervous connection of giant-cells in the posterior part of 

 the body remains undetermined. Blochmannand Bettendorff, 17 

 however, noting a close connection between giant-cells and 

 muscle-fibers, homologize them with the myoblasts found in 

 Cestocles by Blochmann. 18 Zernecke 19 distinguishes the myo- 

 blasts of Cestodes from the ganglion and sense-cells ; the for- 

 mer are muscle-formers, one process of each of which has a 

 secondary nervous connection, the latter generate the nervous 

 system, in whose central or peripheral parts they lie. Finding 

 the giant-cells favorable in D. patellare, I have studied their 

 relation to nerves and muscles. 



The histology of the muscles and nerves must be briefly 

 given. Each muscle is a bundle of parallel longitudinal fibrils, 

 around which I can detect no sheath. These fibrils insert 

 separately at the end of the fiber into the limiting membrane. 

 The large muscles are often hollow. The dorso-ventral and 

 radial muscles are simple fibers, but the others branch and 

 their branches anastomose, so that each muscle becomes a 

 complex system of parallel anastomosing fibers. The longitu- 

 dinal and diagonal muscles are especially long and complex. 1 

 could not find muscle nuclei. 



The cerebral ganglia and nerve-trunks are composed of a 

 finely reticular substance, in whose meshes granules exist ; no 

 nuclei are found in it, no cells are connected with it except the 

 giant-cells, and it has no sheath. The ventral nerves, which 

 can be followed with an oil-immersion lens for some distance, 



17 BLOCHMANN UND BETTENDORFF: Ueber Muskulatur und Sinneszellen der 

 Trematoden, Biolog. Centralbl., Bd. xv, No. 6, 1895. 



18 BLOCHMANN, F.: Ueber freie Nervenendigungen und Sinneszellen der Band- 

 wiirmern, Biolog. Centralbl., Bd. xv, No. I, 1895. 



19 ZERNECKE, E.: Ueber den Nervensystem bei Bandwurmern, Zool. Jahr- 

 biicher, 1896- 



