98 [Oct. 



Saiiisti<y*. Found with the anterior 3 lines of its length buried in an oTal 

 tumor, 4 lines in diameter, in the mesentery of a Didelphis virfiniana. 



7. EcHixosHYscHCS Pici eollaris. Body white, opaque, subcylindrical, sub- 

 compressed and carved posteriorly, transversely corrugated, and slightly so 

 loBgitadinally, moderately dilated anteriorly. Neck very short. Proboscis 

 short, cylindrical, contracted in the middle, with the free exiremity rounded and 

 furnished with 4 rows of simple, recurved booklets. 



Length 1 inch S lines, breadth anteriorly l-lO inch, thickness 1-12 inch ; pos- 

 teriorly 4-5 line broad by 3-5 line thick. Proboscis 4-5 line long, thickness i 

 line. 



^-*-'*'-*-'~- Intestine of Picus eollaris. 



Rfwtaris. Differs from the E. Pici, Gotze* which has a long linear proboscis 

 with S or 10 ranges of booklets, and is narrower in front than behind, just the 

 reverse of the species just described. 



iVdCM OH ths Devdfmimt of tke Goniitu aqnatietu. 



Bj JOSZTU LillDT. M. D. 



Jnst fbor years ago I exhibited to the Academy a mass of living lair-worms or 

 Gocdias aqvaticits, coosistii^ of fourteen individuals strangely knotted together, 

 mad recalling the appropriateness of the Linnean name. 



It is a vulgar opinion that the Gordins is a horse hair which has become vivi- 

 fied from maceration for several weeks in a spring or pool of fresh water, an error 

 which has probably arisen from their frequently being found in water oiling a 

 wsgon rut, or the drinking trough of a horse. I have even been informed by 

 some persons, though by those not given to observe such matters, that they had 

 perceived the direct transmutation of horse lairs into writhing worms, and I was 

 at one time so silly as to be led to try the experiment, with what success it is 

 oDBecessary for me to state. 



The Gordii alluded to in the mass, were blackish-brown in color, from 

 6 to 10 inches in length, and most of them had attached to the posterior 

 extremity of the body a long, white, opaque cord, in several instances nearly as 

 loi^ and as thick as the worms themselves. These cords some of the members 

 Doay recollect I pointed oat at the time as being strings of the ova of the Gordii, 

 but I then was not so well acqnainted with the history of the Gordins as at pre- 

 sent ; that is to say, I did not know that we have no knowledge whatever of its 

 origin or development, and although through cariosity I traced for a few days the 

 development of the nbryo in ovo, yet I did not do it with that care which its 

 importance demanded. Bat however imperfect have been the observations made> 

 with this acknowledgmeot, I have thought it would be well to record them, with 

 tiie hope that they may not only throw a>me light upon the obscure nature of the 

 Gordias, hot also lead others to the discovery of a similar opportunity of investi- 

 gating this animal nnder noore favorable circumstances of locality and informa- 

 tion. The observations I have withheld for a length of time in the hope that I 

 mi^^ be able to veriiy or correct them, but failing to do so to the present time, 

 J new rdoetantly pat them forth from my notes taken at the time. 



The white cords before mentioned consisted of numerous oval ova closely 



>V.;irgeschichte S. 151, Taf. 11. 



