134 THE MICROSCOPE. Oct- 
The animal is an aproctous nematode of the family 
Mermithidia. It may be described as follows :— 
The body: long, smooth, and cylindrical, narrowed at 
the anterior end; the other extremity being slightly flat- 
tened, and ending in a short, curved point: color opaque 
milky white, changing to bright yellow at the tail. 
Skin: smooth and shiny; the ringed structure of the 
cuticle, which often occurs in species of this kind, is very 
apparent when the animal is mounted in balsam. The 
skin was covered with a thin coat of transparent mucus. 
This, however, was unfortunately destroyed by the action 
of the Formalin solution in which I at first attempted to 
preserve the specimen, so that no trace of it now remains. 
Beneath the skin lie two or three layers of longitudi- 
nal muscular fibre, also the usual inner circular series of 
the same. These enabled the animal to increase or shorten 
its length considerably, its body after death measuring 
nearly two inches longer than while it was alive. 
The body is hollow, furnished with one pore at the 
anterior end. This represents the mouth, whichis simple | 
and unarmed. Below the mouth lhe four oval papillae, a. 
By means of these the animal clings on to its host 
during its parasitic life, and they afterwards serve as 
organs of sexual attachment when the animal gets free. 
The mouth appears to lead tmmediately into a long 
intestinal canal, which runs through the entire length of 
the body, and has no anal opening. Ata point just above 
the tip of the tail, b, is the outlet of the excretory canals. 
There canals run back one on each side of the intestinal 
canal for a considerable distance. 
The animal has no circulating apparatus. The figure 
represents the appearance of the extremities of the ani- 
mal magnified 200 times under the microscope, after they 
had been rendered partly transparent by glycerine, ete. 
Mr. Haly, Director of the Colombo Museum, to which 
the specimen has been sent, is of opinion that the anim a 
