128 Beport of the BUharzia Mission in Egypt, 191o 



the unusual appearance of the anterior end of the male worm which 

 differed in outline from that figured, after Looss, as characteristic of the 

 Egyptian worm in most text-hooks. The female appeared to taper towards 

 the posterior extremity instead of ending abruptly. The c^cum approached 

 the end of the body more closely. The oviduct united immediately with 

 the vitelline duct instead of passing forwards to fuse with it at the ootype. 

 The spinous papillae did not seem so salient. 



Flu [172] saw differences in the manner in which the anterior edges of 

 the lateral walls of the gynsecophoric canal joined the body in the male and 

 in the female in the presence of a coiled ovary in full-grown specimens. 



A further point of apparent differential importance was noted by myself 

 in 1908 as a result of an examination of a batch of male bilharzia worms, 

 collected at post-mortem by the late Dr. Turner, from cases of mixed infec- 

 tions in natives of Portuguese East Africa and Nyasaland. I quote the follow- 

 ing interesting portion from my half-yearly report to the Colonial Office in 

 May, 1908. " In cases of mixed infections (as ascertained by microscopical 

 examination of bladder and rectal walls) I have been able to separate into 

 two groups males having four somewhat angular large testes and males 

 having seven to nine small spherical testes. In other cases all the males 

 obtained belonged to one type. The difference in character and especially 

 in number of testes would be considered as a specific character of some 

 reliability if occurring in other groups and if constant as it seems to be here. 

 In order that this character can be utilized in sujDport of the view that the 

 two forms of bilharziosis, rectal and urinary, are caused by parasites 

 specifically distinct, it remains to be shown that males having one particular 

 type of testes are usually or always in sexual conjunction with females 

 producing one type of egg. 



" Granted for the moment that these types of testes and of egg be 

 found to occur constantly, the probabilities are that the male with four 

 testes is the mate of the female giving rise to terminal-spined egg ; for this 

 is the normal arrangement of testes figured by Looss and the terminal- 

 spined ovum is the one recognized by him as the normal product of the 

 mate of this form. 



"In support of this view, I am able at present to offer only one actual 

 observation, in itself a striking one, owing to the lack of females in my 

 material. In the one specimen of a paired couple in my possession, the 

 testes can easily be made out to be seven. The female lies in the gynae- 

 cophoric canal, but its posterior half is broken off. Lying also in the canal, 

 however, is a small ' clot ' containing several lateral-spined ova. We have, 

 then, evidence of the association of the multitesticular male with the 

 female having lateral-spined eggs." 



Replying to the points of difference as set out by Piraja da Silva, Flu, 

 etc., Looss [300] maintained that these features were to be seen equally in 

 specimens of B. hccmatohia in Egypt, and that they might be explained at 

 least in part by varying degrees of contraction in the preserved worms. 



