288 NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



test the matter still more accurately ho attempted to feed the Meso- 

 stomium with carmine, but iu this he failed ; the Nais was however 

 less refractory, and he thus succeeded in getting some very distinct 

 points of observation so soon as the jirey had been devoured by the 

 Turbellarian, 



Two species of Planarians were fed with blood, and the corpuscles 

 were soon observed in the cells of their enteric tube. From these 

 observations only one conclusion is possible : there are Turbellaria 

 which ai'e either without any differentiated digestive system, or which 

 have retained the primitive method of digestion, that namely of taking 

 the nutrient particles into their enteric cells. On the other hand it 

 is no less certain that there are forms in this group which have passed 

 beyond this stage, and do not allow the nutriment to pass into the 

 epithelial cells of the enteric canal until they have been subjected to 

 the ordinary digestive process. These observations are, it should be 

 observed, of great importance as affording au examjile of the like of 

 which we cannot, in the present state of the evolution question, have 

 too many ; for it bears directly on that variation in function of parts 

 morphologically the same, which must have occurred if the theory of 

 evolution be a correct explanation of morphological facts. 



Land Planarians. — Dr. Kennel states in the ' Zoologischer 

 Anzeiger,' * the results of his observations on Fasciola terrestris, 

 O. F. M., and Geodesmus bilineatus, Metschnikoff, the two forms of Land 

 Planarians found in Germany. He was fortunate enough to be able 

 to get a specimen of the former which produced young whilst under 

 observation, and he notes that these are almost completely white. His 

 stiidy of the generative organs leads him to pretty much the same results 

 as did those of Moseley (on Bhynchodemus). The two ovaries are small 

 rounded capsules, placed very near the anterior end of the body ; of 

 the testes there are from 22 to 24 pairs, set close together, and placed 

 just behind the ovaries. The common efferent duct is to be found in 

 the last third of the body, and on the ventral surface it leads into 

 the narrow canal to which Minot has given the name of generative 

 antrum ; the vagina passes back from it and ends as a closed sac, 

 but at the closed end there open into it on either side the oviducts ; 

 the uterus, which has also the form of a closed sac, opens into the 

 vagina ; the sheath for the penis is pear-shaped, and the well-developed 

 penis is conical in shape. 



The primitive vascular system of Moseley is regarded as forming 

 the longitudinal nerves, and is said to be connected with a well- 

 developed bilobed cerebrum. 



Geodesmus has but a single pair of testes, and there is no csBcal 

 sac on the vagina ; the anterior end is not flat (Metschnikoff), but 

 is deeply excavated on its ventral surface. 



Marine Planarians. — Professor Goette gives in the same Journal f 

 a short account of his observations on the development of Marine 

 Planarians. He finds that in the freshly laid eggs of Planaria 



* ' Zool. Anzeiger,' i. (1878) 26. f Ibid., 75. 



