M. E. Claparedc on t/i" Eyy of the Nematoidea. 175 



and separately examined, proved absolutely free from the cor- 

 puscles that I had found in all the Anemones, with this doubtful 

 exception : I found in one drop a single solitary corpuscle. But 

 the presence of that one niiirht safely be attributed to the fact, 

 that I had previously returned one of the wounded animals to 

 the vessel in question, and from this individual it had probably 

 escaped. 



Mr. Lewes suggests that possibly his predecessors in research 

 had mistaken for blood-clcments " the yellow spherical cells (?) 

 which till the tentacles of the adult Daisy, and make solid the 

 tentacles of the Aiithea." Of the function of these yellow 

 spheres he confesses himself ignorant. The supposition is un- 

 tenable. These spherules are pigment-cells, and they do not fill, 

 far less make solid, the tentacles, but merely line their interior. 

 These pigment-cells occuiTcd in several of the experiments re- 

 corded above, and especially in the fluid obtained by incising the 

 body of Sagartia bellis ; but there is no possibility of confound- 

 ing these with the morphotic corpuscles of the chylaqueous fluid : 

 they diftc-r notably in size, colour and structui-e. The corpuscles 

 (in Anthea) average '0002 inch in diameter ; the pigment-cells 

 are fully double this size : the corpuscles have a very faint yel- 

 low tinge, seemingly disks rather than spheres, with no definite 

 walls, and composed of granulose substance; the pigment-cells 

 are of a full but translucent golden-brown hue, very regularly 

 globular in form, evidently spheres, and with a distinct wall. 



It is not with any feeling of disrespect to either of the gen- 

 tlemen named, that I forward these results for publication in 

 the 'Annals.' The subject in question is one of considerable 

 physiological importance ; and as diametrically opposite conclu- 

 sions have been arrived at by independent observers, and as it 

 must be settled by the weight of testimon}^, I have thought it 

 well to add my mite of evidence in favour of the affirmative side. 



I am. Gentlemen, 



Yours faithfully, 



r. li. GossE. 



XIX. — On the Formation of the Egg and Fertilization in the 

 Nematoidea. By Edouard Claparede*. 



The dispute between Nelson, BischofF and Meissner with regard 

 to the formation and fertilization of the eggs in Ascaris mystax, 

 has not yet attained any satisfactory solution. Not one of these 

 three observers has retracted anything of his previous statements, 



* Translated from Siebold and KoUiker's Zeitsclirift fiir wissenscliaftliche 

 Zoologie, vol. ix. p. Idfi, by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S. 



