142 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [March, 



was dotted closely by blood-red or blackish points, which were 

 usually best seen on the serosa, but sometimes best through the 

 mucosa. The latter was covered with a thick layer of viscid mucus. 

 The red points numbered perhaps sixty or eighty. A slight degree 

 of teasing with subsequent pressure over such a point expressed a 

 blood-red translucent body which proved upon microscopical exam- 

 ination to be a worm. From its subglobular shape it was at first 

 supposed to be a fluke, but under the microscope it soon revealed 

 characteristics which placed it among the nematodes. Thirty 

 or "forty of these blood-red worms were expressed and examined 

 before any fixative was applied, the material coming to hand very 

 shortly after death. 



All of these blood-red worms were found to be females. The camera 

 lucida drawings, Plate IV, and measurements are from fresh unfixed 

 specimens, which have been slightly flattened out by the weight 

 of the cover slip. They were examined in normal saline solution. 

 They showed no motion even upon gentle warming. The host 

 had been kept at 10° C. for six to eight hours before autopsy and 

 the parasites in situ at the same temperature overnight. This low 

 temperature acting for twenty-four hours probably explains their 

 quiescence. 



No males could be found in the slime which so thickly covered 

 the mucosa. After the females had been expressed the mucosa 

 was teased into fine shreds and emulsified in normal saline solu- 

 tion. The sediment was washed in the centrifuge several times 

 and from it eight males were recovered with the aid of the micro- 

 scope. It would appear from this that the males occupy the same 

 jDositions that the females do, i.e., the proventricular crypts. 



The largest specimen of the mature female measures 2.1 mm. long 

 and 1.9 mm. broad. On account of the complexity of its coils it is 

 impossible to measure the length of the body axis. They are of a 

 blood-red color, both grossly and microscopically, except the gut 

 tract, which contains molecular black material. This central 

 blackened tract may be seen even grossly upon careful scrutiny. 

 They are moderately resistant to pressure, the trauma of extraction 

 never rupturing the organism. Ordinary cover-glass pressure will 

 rupture them only when the mounting medium (normal saline) 

 evaporates excessively. 



The form of the mature female is extraordinary and occasioned 

 the construction of the genus Tropisuris (Diesing), later changed to 

 Tropidocerca. Before flattening the specimens appear (as shown 



