NOTICES OF IRISH ENTOZOA. 229 



on a slip of glass in a drop of water, and another slip placed 

 over it. This had the effect of causing the head, which was 

 previously invisible, to protrude ; then the neck appeared, 

 and it became evident that the animal was formed on the mo- 

 del of the Anthocephali. Four transparent sacs were seen in 

 the anterior part of the body, {Fig. 32, e) and from these, four 

 tubes ran up to the head, each evidently containing a rostellum. 

 After watching in vain for the protrusion of the latter, I had re- 

 course to stronger pressure, and in several instances succeed- 

 ed in getting a rostellum to issue from its sheath, and show 

 that it was constituted as in others of the same family, that it 

 was crystalline, armed with numerous uncinuli, and that it 

 was protruded by eversion. 



Compared with the bulk of the animal, the rostella are 

 much larger than in any others of the same family that I 

 have hitherto examined ; the uncinuli, too, are of greater 

 comparative magnitude, and the rostella altogether exhibit 

 less delicacy of workmanship than in any similar organs 

 I have heretofore observed. The first rostellum which I suc- 

 ceeded in protruding, reminded me strongly of the appear- 

 ance of a hairy caterpillar : Jig. 32, c, is the sketch I made of 

 it at the time, and all those which I afterwards saw bore an 

 exact resemblance to the first. In one instance only did I 

 succeed in getting a view of the whole four extruded from 

 their theccd. 



Considerable difficulty was experienced in getting the ani- 

 mal freed from a small quantity of very tough mucus which 

 adhered to it, and which, in being torn away, assumed the 

 appearance of a membrane of great tenuity, but I believe it to 

 have been mucus alone. The substance of the Entozoon is 

 granular throughout, having no appearance of vessels, intes- 

 tine, ovaries, or caudal aperture, but in several specimens, 

 (not in all), when the head and neck were protruded, a large 

 transparent space was conspicuous in the anterior end of the 

 body, in which the head and neck, I presume, had been pre- 

 viously lodged. — (Fig, 32 d). 



That this species has four bothria there can, I think, be 

 little doubt ; but as, from its sluggishness, the head could 

 only be seen when compressed, their natural appearance could 

 not, of course, be ascertained. In several instances, however, 

 I observed the dilated portions of the head expanding and 

 contracting (though very slowly) with an undulatory motion 

 of their margins, like that of the Bothriocephalic Scolex poly- 

 morphus, &c. 



These are all the observations I have been enabled to make 

 on this species, which, I believe, has not been previously de- 



