34 Mr. H.J. Carter on Microscopic Filaridse. 



form prolongations, as in Dracunculus. The latter is a common 

 feature in all the microscopic Filaridse that I have examined. 



Alimentary canal loosely suspended within the peritoneal 

 cavity, consisting of an oesophagus, intestine, and rectum, of 

 which the two former are ensheathed, and the latter naked. 

 (Esophagus commencing with a cup-like or buccal cavity, into 

 the posterior part of which projects a sharp-pointed, horny, nar- 

 row tube (fig. 11 d), which is continued backwards in a straight 

 line to the intestine, and is exsertile at the oral orifice. Intes- 

 tine much longer than the oesophagus, uniform in size, and 

 passing straight through the body to terminate abruptly in the 

 rectum, which is very narrow, short, and pursues an oblique 

 course to the anus. (Esophageal sheath assumed to be double, 

 consisting of a membranous (peritoneal) and a muscular por- 

 tion, which are in contact with each other, and gradually in- 

 crease in width from the mouth to the commencement of the 

 intestine, where they are constricted, and the latter terminates, 

 while the former is reflected on to form the peritoneal sheath of 

 the intestine (g). The muscular portion has been wrongly 

 called the oesophagus, while little or no notice has been taken 

 of the horny tube which passes through its centre. The latter, 

 which is also penetrating, is at once the organ of suction and that 

 through which the nutriment is conveyed back to the intestine. 

 I have seen drops of oil (the food) pass out of the point of this, 

 under pressure, but never any trace of food in the sheath which 

 surrounds it. Whether the horny tubular portion be again 

 surrounded by a membranous tube, and thus form a kind of 

 proboscidian organ, I have not been able to determine any 

 further than the buccal dilatation goes, from which it is evi- 

 dently separate ; but it seems to me not improbable that this 

 may be the case throughout, and that this tube may be moved 

 backwards and forwards by a muscular apparatus in the bulbous 

 part of the muscular sheath (see PI. III. figs. 25, 26, and 27 c). 

 But of this there is no doubt, that it or its immediate enclosing 

 sheath is the only part which is in continuation with the intes- 

 tine (fig. 11 h). Peritoneal sheath of intestine uniform in calibre 

 throughout, or until it arrives within a short distance of the 

 rectum, where it suddenly becomes smaller from the absence of 

 the hepatic organ (fig. 7 /), and continues thus for some dis- 

 tance until it arrives at the rectum, where, like the intestine 

 which it surrounds, it also abruptly terminates. 



Hepatic organ consisting of a layer of yellowish-brown olea- 

 ginous globules, becoming amber-coloured posteriorly, occupying 

 the interval between the intestine and its sheath, and extending 

 from the commencement of the former to the part where the 

 sheath becomes suddenly smaller, where they cease, or are only 



