44 



VIII. — On the Anatomy of four species of Entozoa belonging to the 

 genus Strongylus, from the Delphinus phocoena, or common 

 Porpoise. By John Quekett, Secretary to the Microscopical 



Society. 



Read August 18th, 1841. 



The subjects of the present paper, with one exception, were all 

 found in the lungs of the porpoise. Two of them have been long 

 known and described by Rudolphi, Klein and others, under the names 

 of Strongylus inflexus and minor ; a third, from the circumstance of 

 its being found in company with the inflexus, has, by many observ- 

 ers, and by Rudolphi particularly, been considered as a younger spe- 

 cimen of that species ; whilst the fourth appears hitherto either to 

 have escaped notice, or else to have been confounded with the last. 

 My examinations of this Entozoon lead me to consider it as a distinct 

 species ; and from certain peculiarities presently to be noticed, I have 

 named it Strongylus invaginatus. The first one which I shall de- 

 scribe is the Strongylus injlexus, the largest of the four; it occurred 

 most abundantly in the bronchial tubes, and in such numbers as al- 

 most to close them up, but many specimens were found in the right 

 ventricle and auricle of the heart, and in the principal blood-vessels 

 of the lungs as well. 



All the specimens invariably presented their tails towards the la- 

 rynx, and the males were readily distinguished from the females by 

 their bodies tapering away gradually and then becoming slightly ex- 

 panded at the extremity ; the females, on the contrary, were nearly of 

 equal size throughout, and their tails were provided with two inflected 

 points or hooks, from which the name inflexus appears to have been 

 derived, (PI. iv. fig. 1). The average length of the male is about 

 seven inches, whilst that of the female is nine inches. When alive 

 both sexes were of a dirty white colour, and the alimentary canal, 

 which was filled with black matter, was readily discernible through 

 their transparent muscular tunic. The males were much more slender 

 than the females ; the head of each was rather blunt, and provided with 

 an orbicular mouth, with which the alimentary canal was continuous, 

 (fig. 17). In some specimens this tube was filled with black matter up 

 to the mouth, in others it was empty for the first half inch or more. 

 The intestine in many of them passed in a straight line from the head 

 to the tail, in others it proceeded in a wavy course, and its contents 

 were very cohesive, and when examined microscopically were found 



