DE, T. S. COBBOLD ON THE PAEASITES OF ELEPHANTS. 215 



On other grounds than those already stated, the peculiarities of the digestive channels 

 call for remark. Although drawn to a large scale (PL XXIV. fig. 12), I was not ahle to 

 represent the entire set of canals. The branches coming off from the main trunks of 

 this dendriform stomach, if such it may he called, are faithfully represented, both as 

 regards number, size, position, and extent of branching. In no two specimens, however, 

 is their form and distribution absolutely identical, though in all these flukes the general 

 arrangement of the canals is the same throughout. The specimen on which I chiefly 

 relied for an interpretation of the facts was injured in the mounting ; and in drawing that 

 specimen (without reproducing the injuries), I have derived much help from an outline 

 camera sketch made for me by Dr. John Foulerton. In spirit-specimens the natural 

 green tint or bile- stained appearance of the fresh worms is not entirely destroyed. 



In the only hitherto published representation of the worm, I have purposely reduced 

 the digestive apparatus to the lowest possible expression consistent with the general 

 plan ('Entozoa,' Supplement, p. 19). That plan epitomizes, as it were, the larger 

 illustration now given ; yet neither the one nor the other fully expresses the degree of 

 complexity Avhich the secondary and tertiary ramifications of the channels exhibit. My 

 drawing represents the tubes and their csecal ends as seen from the back of the worm. 

 Though unaccompanied by any figure, Dr. Fitz's description closely corresponds with 

 what little I had already observed and written on this point ; but as he pushes the details 

 much further, and as many of his observations concur with what I have recently ascer- 

 tained to exist, I prefer to quote his accurate record of the facts, as follows : — " Just 

 beyond the terminal oral sucker is a voluminous bottle-shaped muscular pouch, the 

 pharynx, with which a short tube, the oesophagus, communicates. The latter has a 

 crenated outline, as if capable of a considerable elongation. This tube bifurcates at its 

 lower end ; the two short branches thus formed pass respectively to the sides of the 

 animal, and enter the main intestinal canals, which extend, one on either side, almost 

 the entire length of the body. These canals are widely separated from each other 

 until they appproach the tail ; and between them lie the sexual organs both male and 

 female, towards the front — the remaining space between, behind, and around being 

 filled in by the yolk-glands or tubes and the caical pouches of the intestine. The 

 latter arise as primary, secondary, and even tertiary divisions, from branches given off 

 more or less alternately from the main canals ; and their general direction is backward, 

 Those running towards the median line are short, with comparatively few branches, 

 while the external tubes are considerably longer, often bifurcating before the secondary 

 and tertiary canals arise. The largest number of caecal pouches are thus observed in the 

 outer portions of the parasite. Another peculiarity of the external canals is, that their 

 secondary branches are almost invariably given off from the posterior aspect of the tubes 

 from which they arise." 



In describing the other internal organs, Dr. Fitz supplies some interesting particulars ; 

 but it is not always clear whether he is dealing with the facts as he actually found them 

 or with appearances which he correctly inferred to exist. Although in my own speci- 

 mens I obtained clear evidences as to the general distribution of the reproductive organs, 

 and especially of the yolk-glands, yet I could neither trace out the ducts of the vitellaria 



