1890.] NATURAL SCIKXCKS OF I'lIILADEH'HIA. 281 



Mr. Isaac C. Martindale was elected Treasurer to serve for the 

 unexpired term of the hite ■Nfr. William (\ Henszey. 



.Skptkmukk 30. 

 The President, Dr. Joseph Leidy, in the chair. 

 Twenty-eight persons present. 



A })aper entitled " On the Influence of Previous Pregnancies on 

 Offspring," by Charles Morris, was presented for publication. 



Parasites of Mola rotunda. — Prof. Leidy stated that one day 

 during his stay at Beach Haven, N. J., while men of the life saving 

 station were directly off" shore watching the bathers in case of acci- 

 dent, a Sun-fish, Mola rotunda, approached the boat, apparently, as 

 they supposed, sleeping. The fish, weighing nearly two hundred 

 pounds, was readilv taken without resistance. It proved to be of 

 additional interest from the great number and variety of parasites 

 with which it was infested. Some of these had occasioned a consid- 

 erable degree of ulceration along the base of the caudal fin. Chief 

 among them was the large Lernea, Penella filosa, which hung in 

 great clusters from the root of the dorsal and other fins. They were 

 from five to nearly seven inches long, and had the head and neck, 

 buried in the flesh of the fish from one to three inches. To many 

 of them were appended the curious bariuicle, Conchoderma virgata ; 

 on one Penella a bunch of seven, most of which were nearly two 

 inches long. Were also more or less profusely covered with colonies 

 of the Hydroid Polyp, Eneope parasitica. 



The characters "of the Penella are as follows: Head compressed 

 s|)lieroid, veutrally thickly [)apillate, dorsally with a median and 

 lateral pair of obtuse horns. Neck long and cylindrical ; with 4 

 pairs of minute black hooks just behind the head veutrally. Thorax 

 thicker, cylindrical, annulated. Abdomen or tail shorter, narrower 

 and annulated : with crowded, lateral filamentary appendages branch- 

 ing from the base. Ovaries long and filiform. Head, neck and 

 ovaries straw-colored ; thorax, abdomen and appendages black. 



In the Regne Animal of Cuvier, it .say.s, there is in the Mediter- 

 ranean a species, Penella filom, seven or eight inches long, which 

 penetx'ates into the flesh of the Sword-fish, the Tunny and the Sun- 

 fish, and torments them horribly. Similar cases of the wonderful 

 bounty of nature are frequent and remind us of the remarks of Mr. 

 Spencer, considered more favorable to the evolutionary than to the 

 special creation theory. While to both may be applied the question, 

 whv the amount of suffering entailed on sentient beings by parasites 

 could not have been avoided, to the fi)rmer there does not arise the 

 question, why are they deliberately inflicted ? 



