■ f 



74 MR. H. CHARLTON BASTIAN'S MONOGRAPH 



certain minute microscopic Ncmatoids found in fresh or salt water, and amongst Con- 

 fervte, by other naturalists, the principal of whom are Bory ', Steinbvich -, Duges ^, Ehren- 

 berg and Hemprich^, Nordmann^, Dujardin", Oken', Quatrefages^, Grube and Leuckart'', 

 Diesing '", Max Schultze ", Leidy '-, Klihn '■', Carter '^ and Eberth '^ The labours, in this 

 direction, of these scientific observers have resulted in the discovery of about eighty species 

 of free Nematodes found in various parts of the world. It is, however, to the researches 

 of Dujardin, Eberth, Carter, and Diesing that we have been principally indebted for our 

 knowledge of this group. Dujardin was the first who seemed to entertain comprehensive 

 notions as to the extent and probable diffusion of these animals, and, besides the dis- 

 covery of several new species, added more precise descriptions of them than the extremely 

 scant details concerning the anatomy of the earlier forms furnished by Otto Milller, 

 Ehrenlierg, Hemjirich '", and others. Carter, besides the discovery of ten new species, 

 has contributed many interesting anatomical details ; and Eberth, in his recent valuable 

 memoir '", has added much to our knowledge of their anatomy, in addition to the descrip- 

 tions and beautiful figures Avhich he has given of twenty -three new species ; though he, like 

 his predecessors, has tended to create great confusion in the nomenclatare, by describing 

 under the same generic name species differing notably in the anatomical arrangement 

 of important parts, as I shall hereafter endeavour to explain. It is by his writings, 

 rather than by special anatomical examinations of his own, that Diesing's name is asso- 

 ciated with this group, since he has not only treated of them in his ' Systema,' but 

 also has lately made the classification of the Nematodes, both free and parasitic, the 

 subject of a special communication '^. 



The writings of Carter afforded the stimulus which induced me to inquire into this 

 subject ; for, like himself, having been intorcstcd in the anatomy of the Dracunculits '^ 

 my attention was arrested by his interesting paper on the " Microscopic Eilaridse in the 

 Island of Bombay " ^°, and my search for similar free Nematoidsin this country has been 



' Encycl. Meth. 1824, p. 777, tab. iv. f. 20-23. = Naturforsch. xxviii. St. 233, tab. v. 



^ Ann. des Sc. naturelles, 1826, torn. ix. p. 225. •* Symb. Phys., seu Icones et Descrip. Animal, evert. 1828. 



' Lamarck's Hist. Nat. des Ann. sans vert. 1840, torn. iii. p. (JG5. 



" Hist. Nat. des HelmiutUes (Suites a Buffon), 1845, p. 230. ' Lelirb. d. Naturg. Zool. 1. Abtheil. p. 192. 



' Ann. des Sciences Nat. 184G, p. 131. " Wiegraann, Arcliiv, 1849, Band i. pp. 157, 358. 



'" Systema Helminthum. Vindobonse, 1851, vol. ii. p. 122. " Icones Zootomicse, Cams, tab. viii. figs. 1-3. 



'= Journ. of Acad, of Nat. Sc. of Philadelphia, vol. iii. (1856) pp. 135-152 (2 plates). 



" Zeitsch. fur wissen. Zool. 1857, t. ix.p. 189. "Ann. of Nat. Hist. 1859, vol. iv. pp. 28 and 98, pis. 1-3. 



'" Untersuch. iiber Nematoden, mit neun Kupfertafeln. Leipzig, 1863. 



'" Any attempt to recognize the species of these authors seems quite hopeless, since, oftentimes, no other anato- 

 mical details are given, save the mere length and breadth, and for figure, if any, only a mere outline form — occasionally 

 a simple white space on a black ground. 



'' My species were already found, drawings made, and a rough draft of this paper written before I was made 

 aware of the researches of Dr. Eberth upon the same subject, by the sight (November 1864) of his admirable mono- 

 graph. I find he has anticipated me in a few of the anatomical facts which I had worked out independently ; the 

 coincidence, however, cannot but be satisfactory in a field beset with so many conflicting statements of different 

 observers. 



"* Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie, 1861, Bd. xlii. no. 28, p. 612. 



" Transactions of the Linnean Society, vol. xxiv. part 2, p. 101. '" Loc, cit. 



