74 Miscellaneous. 



and through the oesophagus, stomach, and intestine. As the sections 

 approach the rectum, however, the mass graduallj^ ceases to take 

 staining, and is much more distinctly marked out from the intes- 

 tinal waU, having had all the organic matter digested out, and 

 consisting only of the inorganic remains, which do not stain. The 

 alimentary matter of Scdpce is composed of animal and vegetal 

 elements in nearly equal proportions, and the microscope reveals 

 the calcareous shells of Foraminifera, the beautifully sculptured 

 frustules of Diatomacese, keen siliceous needles, and the sharp 

 armatures of minute Crustacea. 



In the fore part of the intestinal canal, the food-mass, staining 

 almost as readily as the wall of the gut itself, seems to merge into 

 the ill-defined epithelium of the latter, and it is scarcely possible 

 to say where the food-bearing mucous thread ceases and the intes- 

 tinal epithelium begins, especially as this latter has a rugous ar- 

 rangement. That we have here to do with a form of digestion 

 entirely anomalous and unprecedented, he could not believe, and 

 begged leave to differ from Dr. Korotneff on this point. Fol and 

 others have recognized the endostyle as a sort of salivary gland, 

 and have traced its food-laden mucous thread into the stomach of 

 the living animal, while the speaker had been able to trace the 

 same thing in well-preserved specimens. He had also several series 

 of sections from animals which must have been without food for 

 some time previous to death, in which the lumen of the intestine is 

 not only free of food, but of any obliterating mass of cells or Plas- 

 modium. The only protoplasmic bodies not food are certain Greya- 

 rnirt-like organisms adhering to the walls of various parts of the 

 intestine, and which he took to be parasites. These give on section 

 the appearance of the large " scattered cells, entirely free from 

 their surroundings," which Korotneff figures and regards as "analo- 

 gous to the great stomach-cell of Anchinia." The first opportunity 

 would be taken to examine these structures in living Salpa; ; but 

 he was now forced to conclude that Dr. Korotneff has endowed the 

 food-bearing mucous thread with a power it does not possess, that 

 Salpa does not exhibit any unusual form of intracellular digestion, 

 and that there is no immediate cause on its account for questioning 

 the high genetic place occupied by the Tunicates. — Froc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Philad., April 15, 1884, pp. 113-115. 



On a Species of Tachina occurrivr/ on the Traclieal System of Carabus. 

 By M. N. Cholodkowskt. 



In the summer of the year 1882, when I was examining 

 various species of the genus Carabus for purposes of comparative 

 anatomy, I found on the abdominal stigmata of some specimens of 

 Carabus cancellatus some peculiar small whitish bodies which pro- 

 jected freely into the body-cavity of the beetle. These bodies were 

 of an oval form and about 1 millim. long. On closer examination, 

 after cutting out the stigma with a small piece of skin and with 

 the tracheal stem starting from the stigma, the following proved to 



