428 



December 15, 1858. 



Dr. D. H. Storer, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Dr. James C. White exhibited specimens and figures 

 of Stephanurus dentatus, Diesing, Sclerostomum denta- 

 tum ? Rudolphi. 



These worms were found in the leaf-lard of an apparently 

 healthy hog, in the adipose tissue near the kidney. They occu- 

 pied a portion of the same about the size of a man's fist, and had 

 burrowed through the mass in every direction, forming canals 

 three or four millimetres (^ to ^ of an inch) in diameter, which 

 terminated in cysts. On cutting open these cavities, which did 

 not communicate with each other, they were found filled with 

 pus, and in each were two worms, male and female. The female 

 is nearly double the male in size, and bent upon herself so that 

 the two extremities meet. The head and tail of both sexes are 

 red, and the bodies are a pale yellow, mottled with black. The 

 females, being filled with eggs, were darker. They are oviparous, 

 and the eggs were found in all stages of segmentation. They 

 belong undoubtedly to the nematoidea, and, so far as can be 

 ascertained from the scanty descriptions given, to the above- 

 named species. Whether the embryo inhabits another part or 

 not is not ascertained, for the mature worm only is known, and 

 mentioned as found in the liver of the hog. They were situated 

 along the course of a large blood-vessel, and no doubt gained 

 their situation by boring through the circulatory system while in 

 the embryonic candition. 



Dr. Kneeland read the following communication on 

 the breathing apparatus of the Menobranchus, showing 

 the relative value of the branchial, pulmonary, and cuta- 

 neous respirations : — 



In June last he put two of these reptiles into an aquarium with 

 half a dozen minnows, varying in size from two to three inches. 

 The fish were frequently seen nibbling at the expanded gills of 

 the reptiles, which as often suddenly started from their ordinary 



