454 Miscellaneous. 



she well remembered the ' kleine Franschman ' (Uttle Frenchman), as 

 she called him — that, during his stay in that part of the country, he 

 lodged entirely at her house — and that he never crossed the Orange 

 River, being too much of a coward so to do. When told that he had 

 stated he had shot the giraffe, she scouted the idea, and declared 

 that the skin which he took away was brought piecemeal, from the 

 opposite side of the river, by his Hottentots. Mrs. Van Zyl was a 

 huge, raw-boned woman, who stood upwards of six feet, and usually 

 wound up her narrative concerning LeVaillant by laughingly relating 

 how she had horse-whipped the ' little Frenchman ' for attempting 

 some liberties with her." — The Birds of South Africa, 8vo, Cape 

 Town, 180 7, p. 139. 



Investigations on Rhabditis terricola. By M. J. Perez. 

 (Notice by M. E. Claparede.) 



The animal which constitutes the subject of this memoir has been 

 determined by the author as Rhabditis terricola (Duj.), He found 

 it first in the eggs of slugs, but soon found that this was a pheno- 

 menon of pseudoparasitism. The entire eggs contained no Nema- 

 todes, but those which were crushed had them in great numbers : 

 the decomposing albumen had attracted them. The worm, in fact, 

 lives freely in the earth, and multiplies with great rapidity wherever 

 it finds albuminous matters in decomposition. It may be remarked, 

 in connexion with this, that M. Schneider some years ago observed 

 the same phenomenon as M. Perez, and made the same experiments. 

 M. Schneider even ascertained that a great number of species exist 

 under these conditions. Finding the genus Rhabditis of Dujardin 

 imperfectly characterized, he described these worms at first under 

 the name of Pelodytes, and afterwards under those of Pelodera and 

 Leptodera. In our opinion, he would have done better had he re- 

 tained the name of Rhabditis for one at least of these two genera. 

 However this may be, the worms chiefly studied by M. Perez belong 

 to the genus Leptodera ; some figures only (especially pi. 7. fig. 2), 

 which M. Perez himself admits represent exceptional forms, belong 

 to Pelodera (Schn.). It is, therefore, not impossible that the 

 author's observations relate to several species. 



It is impossible for us to follow M. Perez in his very detailed 

 anatomical investigation of his Rhabditides, Nor could this be done 

 without establishing a detailed parallel with the fine monograph on 

 the Nematoidea of M. Schneider, which appeared shortly after the 

 memoir of M. Perez. Certain questions of cellular morphology, 

 treated with great care by the author, also cannot be discussed here. 

 We shall only express our regret that the author has not taken into 

 consideration the ideas of the new cellular school (Lionel Beale, 

 Brilcke, Max Schultze, Hiickel, &c.). To make up for this, we 

 shall dwell upon some very interesting observations relative to the 

 development of the Rhabditides. 



The ova are developed and hatched in the interior of the terus. 

 But the intra-uterine life does not terminate here. The oung 



