126 SUJ.lMAllY OF CUlUiEiN'T 11E«EARCHKS EELATING TO 



exceptional among animals in regard to the interpretation of the nature 

 of reproduction. Paired bodies resembling " pro-chromosomes " are 

 found during the pre-sjnaptic stages, and these are transformed into 

 parallel threads and enter the contraction figure, indicating a parasynapsis. 

 A more intimate and orderly union of the paired threads in synapsis is 

 observed in the oogenesis than in the spermatogenesis. Elimination of 

 chromatin during cleavage occurs in the four-cell stage, as in A. Jumhri- 

 coides, rather than at the two-celled stage, as in ^. mec/alocephala. A 

 copious bibliography is appended to the paper. 



Trichostrongylus orientalis.* — K. Kitamura describes the peculiar 

 ova of this Nematode which is widely distributed in Japan. It lives in 

 man in the duodenum and in the beginning of the jejunum. The eggs 

 occur in the f feces. They resemble those of Anhjlostoma and Kecator, 

 but are consideraljly larger and show more numerous blastomeres. The 

 development of the larva in free life may be divided into three stages — 

 the first after the hatching out of the egg-shell, the second after the 

 first moult, and the third after " encystation." At each stage the larvfe 

 may be distinguished from those of Ankylostoma by the caudal 

 characters, the arrangement of the intestinal cells, the length of the 

 body, and so on. Infection may perhaps be effected cutaneously, as has 

 been shown experimentally in the mouse. The worms are hardly of 

 pathological importance. A full description is given of adults and larvee. 



New Acanthocephalan.f — H. J. Yan Cleave gives a careful descrip- 

 tion of FilicoUis botulns sp. n. from the intestine of an eider-duck. Till 

 recently it would have been referred to the genus Echinorhynchus, but 

 Liihe's attempt to solve the problem of the relationships of E. iwhj- 

 morflius Bremser, E. anatis Sclu'ank, and E.filicoUis Rudolphi, led him 

 to establish two independent genera — FilicoUis and PoJymoiyhvs. The 

 proboscis of the female of the new species is atypical in being not 

 inflated but like that of the male. 



Platyhelminthes. 



Tapeworms of Fowls and Sparrows. J — F. J. Meggitt describes 

 from fowls Davainea dubius sp. n., D. cesticillus Molin, and Amccbofsenia 

 sphenoides von Linstow. In regard to the last, the fatal effect of large 

 numbers is noted. The Cestodes secrete a toxin which, when present 

 in large quantities, acts as a strong poison, but which may have no 

 apparent effect when diluted. The eggs may develop inside the 

 brandling {Allolobojyhora fcetida), a,ud a prick of a needle may liberate 

 10-30 cysticercoids from the intestine. From sparrows the author 

 obtained Choanotsenia parina Duj. and Hymenolepis interriiptus Clerc. 



* MT. med. Falkult. k. Univ. Kyushu, ii. (1916) pp. 1-59 (6 pis.), 

 t Trans. Amer. Micr. Soc, xxxv. (1916) pp. 125-30 (1 fig.). 

 J Parasitology, viii. (1916) pp. 390-410 (3 pis. and 1 fig.). 



