Notices of Irish Entozoa. 523 



ing power of 500 diameters, such as is represented at/. 24. d. 



That the spicular bodies are the true ova, I believe there 

 can be little doubt ; but all that has been said respecting the 

 oval bodies is purely conjectural. That they are cotyledons 

 or placentulce as Rudolphi* and some other writers have ima- 

 gined, I see no grounds for believing. That the spicular ova 

 are ever inserted in them as Rudolphi has stated, ( "quibus in- 

 terdum etiam ovula inserta videmus" ), is, I am satisfied, a mis- 

 take which originated probably from viewing them with too 

 low a magnifier. In the compound microscope they are seen 

 to be quite unconnected by agitating in any way the water 

 around them. One of the larger bodies lying over or under 

 one or more of the spicular, will give the appearance of an 

 intimate union, which is altogether deceptive. When the ova 

 are dried on a slip of glass, they recover perfectly their ori- 

 ginal appearance when a little water is applied to them ; but 

 the oval bodies continue flattened, and seem more cellular 

 than when recent. 



How are the ova of the Echinorynchus discharged ? Ru- 

 dolphi and some of the best helminthologists have imagined 

 that they were ejected from the proboscis, a notion which I 

 conceive could only have arisen from the circumstance that 

 no other aperture for their exit could be found. " Ostio isto 

 negato, vermis undique clausus foret, nam peculiare non ha- 

 betur vulvae vel ani foramen." Rud. 'Ent. Hist. Nat.' v. i. p. 

 253. He states also, page 292, that according to the experi- 

 ments of Gaeze, Zeder, and himself, when the body of the 

 Echinorynchus Gigas is compressed with the fingers, the ova 

 are seen to be disgorged from the apex of the proboscis. Clo- 

 quet found no such result, and he correctly, I believe, suppo- 

 ses that a fluid containing round globules which escapes from 

 the proboscis on pressure, and which sometimes is of a milky 

 colour, had given rise to the mistake.f I have myself examined 

 the Echinorynchus Acus with this view, and have compressed 

 the worm between plates of glass till the body has burst, but 

 without any appearance whatever of the escape of a single 

 ovum from the proboscis. 



The ovary of the Echinorynchus has been long known as 

 a canal of delicate membrane, containing ova extending from 

 the sheath of the proboscis to the apex of the tail, J and Clo- 



*Entoz. Hist. Nat. vol. I. p. 293. 

 f " Les auteurs qui disent avoir fait sortir les ceufs par le pore de la 

 trompe, en comprimant le corps du ver, ont sans doute pris pour eux le flu- 

 ide laiteux qui en suinte assez souvent pendant cette experience." Op. 

 Cit. p. 103, note 



+ Rudolphi <Ent. Hist. Nat.' vol. I. p. 292. 

 Vol. II. -No. 22. n. s. 3e 



