302 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



and along the coast of Virginia, but the adult has not been taken. He 

 reared the larva? very successfully by the "diatom -method." Sand was 

 obtained by means of a dredge and put into aquarium jars with fresh 

 sea water. The jars were then kept near a window until the sand had 

 settled and a rich culture of diatoms had appeared as a brown layer on 

 the top of the sand. This was drawn off with a pipette and given to 

 the young worms. Under these conditions the young worms grew 

 rapidly and throve well. By means of the glandular papilla? on the 

 anal segment they attached themselves to the bottom of the dish, but 

 the rest of the body was kept in almost continual motion, waving 

 backwards and forwards and often making knots. 



Alimentary Tract of the Leech.* — Camille Spiess has studied the 

 gut of Hirudo medkinalis, and finds that the pouched stomach or crop is 

 especially adapted for absorption. Its wall consists of two very delicate 

 membranes, — an external connective layer, without glands but with trans- 

 parent muscle-fibres, and an internal epithelium, in single layer, with 

 numerous longitudinal plaits. This epithelium consists of prismatic 

 cells with markedly reticular cytoplasm, without any membrane at the 

 free surfaces, but distinctly secretory. 



Nematohelmin.th.es . 



Filaria perstans.f — G-. C. Low discusses the distribution, life-history r 

 and importance of this Nematode, larval forms of which were discovered 

 by Manson in the blood of a West African negro suffering from sleeping 

 sickness. It occurs in British Guiana and West Africa, in or near the 

 equatorial belt. The young forms live in the blood ; the adults inhabit 

 the connective tissues at the base of the mesentery. Its intermediate 

 host is quite uncertain, though it is probably some insect. Like Filaria 

 demarquaii it gives rise to no pathological symptoms. It is not really 

 connected with sleeping sickness. 



Platyhehninthes. 



Asiatic Human Parasites4 — C. W. Stiles and L. Taylor report on 

 three Asiatic parasites " which may possibly occur in returning American 

 troops," — an adult cestode {Dvphgonoporus grandis), a larval cestode 

 (Sparganum mansoni), and an Egyptian and Japanese Strongyle (Stron- 

 gylus subtilis). This illustrates a somewhat unusual prevision. 



New Gyrocotyle.§ — W. A. Haswell describes from a new species of 

 Gallorhynchus, described by Waite under the name G. ogilbyi, a new 

 species of Gyrocotyle, for which the name G. nigrosetosa is proposed. 

 The members of the genus Gyrocotyle (Amphiptyches) are monozoic 

 unsegmented Cestodes (with hexacanth larva?) found exclusively in 

 Holocephali. It is not surprising, therefore, that a new species of 

 ( 'allorhynchus has yielded a new species of Gyrocotyle. Haswell com- 



* Arch. Sci. Phys. Nat., xiv. (1902) pp. 548-52. 

 t Brit. Med. Journ., No. 2204, March 28, 1903, pp. 722-4 (2 figs.), 

 t Bull. U.S. Dep. Agriculture, No. 35, Washington, 1902, pp. 43-7 (7 figs.),. 

 47-50 (8 rjgs.\ 41-2(1 pi.). 



§ Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., xxvii. (1902) pp. 48-54 (1 pi.). 



