3fiscellaneous. 351 



of the adult Aiif/uillnht stercorals, ia almost three times as long ; its 

 lenpth is i>o times its breadth. 



The body, a little attenuated in front, terminates rather suddenly 

 behind in a conic^il tail, the point of which is ver}' distinctly rounded 

 and even u little widened at the extremity. With a suflBcient 

 magnifying iKJwer, the surface appears very finely but verj- distinctly 

 and regularly striated transversely throughout its whole length. 



The mouth presents no corneous armature, but only three very 

 small lips. It gives access to a nearly cylindrical oesophagus which 

 occupies about one fourth of the length of the animal, and presents 

 neither inflations nor stria; ; this is followed by an intestine, with 

 which it would be very easily confounded but for a sudden change of 

 tint. This intestine extends nearly to the extremity of the body ; 

 but it almost ceases to be visible in the middle part, which is occu- 

 pied by a very elongated ovary. 



The vulva is situated at the posterior third of the animal; and in 

 its Nicinity the uterus contains five or six elongated ova, isolated 

 from each other, and becoming a little confused in proportion as 

 they are more distant from the vulva. 



The anus, a transverse cleft, is situated towards the base of the 

 tail. The ova and viscera are of a greenish yeUow colour, rather 

 opaque, and very finely granular in appearance. 



^U.1 the individuals hitherto observed were ovigerous females, or 

 they presented no sexual organs, either male or female, even though 

 they were of considerable size. AU were dead, or at least motion- 

 less ; they were abundant in the duodenum, but less frequent in 

 the jejunum, and did not reach the ileon. On one occasion they 

 were numerous, as weU as AnguilUda stercoralis, in the fluids pro- 

 ceeding from the stomach. 



In the materials in which the worm is found, fragments of it con- 

 taining eggs often occur : sometimes these eggs are found isolated 

 and recognizable by their elongated form ; in some the embryo is in 

 course of formation, and then presents a ver}' remarkable row of 

 dorsal ceUs ; in others the embryo is more advanced and even makes 

 two complete turns. 



In the evacuations of three diarrhooic patients which we kept in 

 order to trace the development of Anguillula stercoralis, we found in 

 a few days certain larva) differing from those of that species. They 

 were more elongated, with a cylindrical oesophagus descending nearly 

 to the middle of the body, and a tail which, instead of terminating 

 in a fine point, was, as it were, truncated at the extremity. Al- 

 though the rearing of these larvae could not be carried far enough 

 to prove incontestably their identity vixih. AnfitiiUula intestinalis, we 

 have scarcely any doubt upon this point. In fact, two of the pa- 

 tients who presented this form in their evacuations have since died, 

 and their j>ost mortem examination furnished the adult form ; the 

 third patient is still living. We have sought it in vain in a man 

 who came from Cochin China three years ago, and in whose intestine 

 AvfjuUhda stercoralis was very abundant. 



