Miscellaneous. 73 



Hab. Same as Cladophytum comatum, but rarely growing in such 

 dense tufts. 



The three genera of Entophyta of which I have now spoken, are all 

 so constantly found in the Juliis marginatus, that I look upon it as 

 a natural condition, and should I hereafter meet with an individual 

 without them, I will consider it a rare exception, because, in one 

 hundred and sixteen individuals which I have examined during the 

 past thirteen months, in all seasons, and at all ages and sizes of from 

 one up to three inches of the animal, 1 have invariably found them. 

 It cannot be supposed that these are developed and grow after death, 

 because I found them always immediately upon killing the animal. 

 Whilst the legs of fragments of the animals were yet moving upon 

 my table, or one-half of the body even walking, I have frequently 

 been examining the plants growing upon part of the intestinal canal 

 of the same individual. And uyjon the entozoa, these entophyta will 

 be frequently found growing, whilst the former are actively moving 

 about. I found among others an Ascaris three lines long, which had 

 no less than twenty-three individuals of Enterohrus, averaging a line 

 in length, besides a quantity of the other two genera growing upon 

 it, and yet it moved about in so lively a manner that it did not ap- 

 pear the least incommoded by its load of vegetation. This specimen 

 I have preserved in a glass cell in Goadby's solution, and exhibit it 

 to the Academy. 



The animals were uniformly enjoying good health, i. e. all the or- 

 ganic and animal functions were natural ; they eat, grew, reached 

 their definite size, reproduced, and, in fact, presented all those actions 

 characteristic of the normal state of existence of the animal. 



The genus Julus is an extensive one, and its species are found in 

 all the great parts of the globe, and as their habits are the same, the 

 conditions for the production of the entophyta will be the same ; and 

 I think I do not go too far when I say, they will be constantly found 

 throughout the genus in any part of the world, so that naturalists 

 and others may, upon examination, readily verify or contradict the 

 statements which I have this evening presented. 



From tiiese facts we perceive that we may have entophyta in 

 luxurious growth within living animals, without aifecting their health, 

 which is further supported by my having detected mycodermatoid 

 filaments in the caecum of six young and healthy rats, examined im- 

 mediately after death, although they existed in no other part of the 

 body. These filaments were minute, simple and inarticulate, measuring 

 from l-5000th to l-1428th in. in length, by l-16,000th of an inch 

 in breadth. With them were also found two species of Vibrio. 



Even those moving filamentary bodies belonging to the genus 

 Vibrio, I am inclined to think, are of the character of algous vegeta- 

 tion. Their movement is no objection to this opinion, for much higher 

 confervae, as the Oscillatorice, are endowed with inherent power of 

 movement not very unlike that of the Vibrio, and indeed the move- 

 ment of the latter appears to belong only to one stage of its existence. 

 Thus, in the toad {Bufo americanus), in the stomach and small in- 

 testine, there exist simple, delicate, filamentary bodies, which are of 



