832 ANNUAL KECOED OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



PAVONARIA BLAKEI, A NEW ALCYONOID POLYP. 



Much discussion was excited some time since in regard to 

 the precise character of certain transparent switches, or rods, 

 found on the western coast of North America; and although 

 considered by some as the vertebrae of fishes, they were gen- 

 erally believed to belong among the invertebrates. The best 

 authorities, however, agreed in considering them as a species 

 of alcyonoid polyp. Mr. R. E. C. Stearns, of San Francisco, 

 having lately obtained some fresh specimens from the Gulf 

 of Georgia, thinks them a new species of a genus JPavonaria 

 (Cuvier) an alcyonoid polyp belonging to the group Penna- 

 tulidce^ and named by him F. Blahei. The most perfect spec- 

 imen examined by him was five to six feet in length. Cal- 

 ifornia 3Iming Press, July 31, 1873, 265. 



ENTOZOA AND ENTOPIIYTA IN MAN. 



At a meeting of the British Medical Association in London, 

 the President, Sir William Fergusson, referring to the pres- 

 ent state of our knowledge on the subject of entozoa, calls 

 attention to the recent discovery of the occurrence in the 

 human blood of immense numbers of a nematoid worm, the 

 most remarkable feature being the apparent harmlessness of 

 the afiection, the existence of thousands at a time in the sys- 

 tem appearing to do but little injury. According to Dr. 

 Lewis, persons infested with these worms must have had 

 them for years, and still seem to be in good health, and ex- 

 ercising all their customary avocations. He inquires why 

 it is that they do not cause an obstruction of the system, 

 or abstract the nutriment that the body should possess; 

 what becomes of them when they die ; where they decay, etc.; 

 and says that these and other points require further investi- 

 gation for their determination. 



Another subject referred to by Sir William Fergusson was 

 that of diseases, chiefly of the skin, caused by cryptogamic 

 plants, paralleled by other forms (such as the itch) produced 

 by animals. He finds that many aftections previously ob- 

 scure are now better understood, and are attributable to the 

 presence of bacteroid bodies, provisionally assigned to the 

 veixetable kino-dom. He thinks that it is certain that these 

 minute cells, penetrating from without by surface wounds, 



