T. B. ROSSETER ON HYMEXOLEPIS FARCIMINALIS. 301 



brood, I can but draw the conclusion that these " flache ovale 

 Kugeln " seen and mentioned by him in the " Mittelglieder " of 

 his worm were in reality the early-formed embryonic (six-hooked 

 brood) eggs. I possess an old microscope by Cuff, which belonged 

 to my great-uncle. It is complete with the series of six objectives 

 and accessories. For comparison I have examined my specimens 

 with these objectives. Goeze says his drawings were made from 

 specimens examined with a " No. 3 objective/' and assuming that 

 Goeze in his day had nothing better to work with than No. 3 of 

 my series of objectives belonging to Cuff's microscope, I can well 

 understand his inability to satisfactorily discriminate the real 

 form of these structures. 



Fig. 1, a — (/, shows the variability of the evolution of the pro- 

 glottides in the strobila. Fertilisation takes place approximately 

 62 mm. from the scolex. Three mm. farther on they undergo a 

 change owing to the gradual development of the uterus; but the 

 segmentation of the ova — the " flache ovale Kugeln " of Goeze — at 

 this stage is not far advanced. In the remaining 12 mm. the 

 segments become gradually differentiated as uterine proglottides 

 containing the perfected embryonic six-hooked brood, and, as will 

 be seen on reference to Fig. 1, /, the whole character of the 

 individual proglottis is changed. Seeing, now, that Goeze's 

 specimen was 12G mm. long, or 47 mm. longer than my longest 

 specimen, and taking into consideration the radical change that 

 has taken place in the uterine segments of the terminative 

 12 mm. of the strobila of my specimens (the worm having 

 previously cast off segregated uterine segments, as is indicated 

 by the transverse posterior border of the succeeding segment, a 

 change which renders them very conspicuous), one is left with 

 a wide margin in the field of imagination as to the possibility of 

 these remaining uterine proglottides — 47 mm., 13 mm. longer 

 than von Siebold's whole worm — transforming themselves into 

 the " Farcimeniform " formation, as shown by Goeze , in his 

 Naturgeschickte, Tab. 31b, fig. 21, and which up to the present 

 time, although Creplin's specimen was 120 mm. in length, no 

 later investigator has corroborated. 



From the time that the genitalia are formed, up to the develop- 



