58 A FURTHER KNOWLEDGE OF THE CYSTIC CESTODES, 



longitudinally running elastic fibres. The outer circular layer 

 and the inner longitudinal together constitute the " musculo- 

 dernial " layer of Leuckart, but which is perhaps here better 

 termed a " dermo-elastic layei\" Griesbach describes* in Soleno- 

 phorus megalocephalus, below the cuticle, a similar layer of circular 

 elastic fibres, while the longitudinal fibres correspond to his sub- 

 cuticular *' Langsmuskeln." 



Internal to the "dermo-elastic" layer is the layer termed by 

 various authors subcuticula, subcuticular or hypoderm layer, or 

 the layer of matrix cells. 



The subcuticula of the Hoplocephalus Cysticercus is composed 

 of a layer of radially elongated cells, which appear somewhat 

 triangular in transverse section (Fig. 5, s. c), with their broad 

 ends directed outwards and their narrow ends inwards ; in longi- 

 tudinal section (Fig. 6, s. c.) they appear more spindle-shaped and 

 their narrow ends are prolonged for some distance into the body 

 tissue. They possess deeply staining nuclei, which, as Steudener 

 has noted generally for Cestodes, may be situated in any part of 

 the cell, sometimes near the middle, at other times nearer the base 

 or apex, " so that they appear not in a line but alternating in a 

 somewhat broad zone."t 



As RobozJ finds in Solenophorus megalocephalus, the cells com- 

 posing the subcuticula do not abut directly on one another or on 

 the "dermo-elastic" layer, but are separated from each other and 

 from the dermo-elastic layer by a finely granular matrix (Fig. 5, 

 m,). Monticelli,§ apparently not recognising the existence of this 

 intercellular matrix, inclines to the belief that the spaces between 

 tne cells ai'e due to the efiect of the reagents used, and very pro- 

 bably also, as Pintner says, to the state of contraction or extension 



* " Beitrage sur Kenntniss der Anatomie der Cestoden," Archiv f. Mik. 

 Anat., Band xxii. 1883, p. 571. 



t Leuckart, " Parasites of Man," p. 288. 

 X Zeit. f. wiss. Zool. xxxvii. ; Abstract Journ. Roy. Micr. Soc. Vol. ii. 

 Ser. 2nd, 1882, p. 785. 



§ Loe. cit. p. 136. 



