A discussiou of certaiu questious of nomenclature, as applied to parasites. 201 



good friend and colleague is hardly in a position to think it stränge 

 if circumstances result in suppressing Lecithodendrium. And in order 

 to prevent such cases in the future, I readily join with him in the 

 exclaniation, "Deshalb Vorsicht in der Aufstellung von typischen Ver- 

 tretern" — to which I would add: And be sure to designate 

 the types at the tirae the genus is originallyproposed! 



Looss (1899, p, 614) admits that "D. retusunC'' is probleraatic ; 

 that "D. arrectum''' is also not certain ; aud that "D. clavigeruni''' of 

 DuJARDiN is a misdetermination. Accordingly, for him, the choice of 

 the type of Brackycoelium would naturally lie between D. heteroporum 

 and D. crassicolle, and he remarks that (if Hassall and I had not 

 already selected D. crassicolle) he "raight now [1899, i. e., three years 

 after his Lecithodendrium was proposed] very easily select the name 

 Brachycoelium for the genus based upon B. Jieteroporum". 



I will not lay stress upon the fact that Looss in 1896, considered 

 B. Jieteroporum as a probable raember of the genus Lecithodendrium, 

 and that he would at that time, therefore, not have selected this 

 species as type of Brachycoelium since such action would have in- 

 validated his own genus Lecithodendrium (hence the inadvisability of 

 designating heteroporum as type in either 1896 or 1898 is too seif 

 evident to need discussion), but I will turn to another phase of the 

 subject. 



Upon examining the literature, it is seen as Looss (1899, p. 612) 

 States, that Minot (1878) and Braun (1895, fig. 45, p. 128) have 

 given figures of D. crassicolle. As stated by Looss, Minot has given 

 a detailed description of this form; furthermore, as also recognized 

 by Looss, an exceedingly important character, not clear from Minot's 

 paper, is clearly shown in Braun's figure, namely, a cirrus pouch is 

 present. In referring to the latter, Looss remarks : "It remains, how- 

 ever, a question whether the figure is not made somewhat diagram- 

 matic corresponding to its special purpose in the given place." To 

 this I am constrained to reply that I would be no more inclined to 

 assume that an authority like Max Braun would deliberately draw 

 a diagram of a trematode, insert a cirrus pouch if it were not present, 

 and label it B. crassicolle, than I would assume that an authority 

 like Looss would deliberately figure organs he did not see in one of 

 his own species. If Braun wished to draw a diagram of a trematode 

 which had a cirrus pouch, he would not deliberately select a species 

 which had none, and then insert it from Imagination. I have not the 

 honor of the personal acquaintance with Prof. Braun as I have with 



