Miscellaneous. 457 



The new genus approaches nearest to Chondrostachys of J. D. 

 Macdonald (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. i. p. 401, pi. xi.), 

 from Bass's Straits. In the position of the two apertures, the four- 

 lobed character of the ingestive aperture, and the structure of the 

 intestine this agrees precisely with the new species from the Rouk 

 Islands. In Chondrostachys also the ovaries and testes are placed 

 in the loop of the intestine, and the tailed larvae lie partly in the bran- 

 chial space, and partly in diverticula of the walls ; but in Chondro- 

 stachys the individual animals are not united by a tunic, but 

 arranged separately on the common peduncle, and the tunic of the 

 individuals is of considerable thickness. The new form is named 

 Oivycorynia fasoicidaris. — Verhandl. zool.-bot. Geselhch. in Wien, 

 13d. xxxii. (1882) pp. 175-177, pi. xi. 



On the Direct Reproduction of Tapeworms. By M. P. 3I6gnin. 



On making a post-mortem examination of a little pet dog which 

 died at the age of four months under epileptiform attacks which had 

 troubled it for a month, I found in its intestines three large tape- 

 worms of the species Tcenia serrata, Goeze, from 0*50 to 0*80 

 metre in length, which were at least two months old, and a dozen 

 young tapeworms from 0-003 to 0*010 and 0-015 metre in length. It 

 is certain that the large Tcenice were contracted at the kennel where 

 the young dog was bred, either by more or less direct contact with 

 other dogs, or by food or drink containing germs of Tcenice. As to 

 the young tapeworms of a few millimetres length, which consequently 

 had only been a few days in existence (a Tcenia of eighteen days 

 being several inches long according to Van Beneden's experiments), 

 it is impossible to explain their presence otherwise than by a direct 

 reproduction by means of ova furnished by the large tapeworms and 

 hatched in the intestines ; for during the last month of the life of the 

 young subject, when I had it constantly under my eyes, I am abso- 

 lutely certain that its nourishment was of perfect purity, and that 

 it did not swallow either Cysticercus or Coenurus, which are still 

 regarded, erroneously, as the sole germs that can furnish tapeworms. 

 This is therefore an example of direct reproduction of tapeworms 

 without the intervention of any larval migration. 



A proof that even in man the proglottides of tapeworms, detached 

 from the strobila, may remain for a long time in the intestine, 

 evacuate their ova there, and even acquire extraordinary dimen- 

 sions, is furnished by some proglottides which I possess, and^ which 

 were passed by a young man. These proglottides are 0-035 metre 

 long and 0-005 metre wide, and no longer show more than a few ova 

 scattered through their tissue. It is by the hatching of the ova 

 thus deposited and the penetration of the embryos into the tissues 

 that we can explain the development of the measly state in man 

 and in the dog ; and the examples of the persistence during several 

 years of an infection of tapeworms furnished by the human subject 

 are probably cases of the direct reproduction of Tcenice in the intes- 

 tine. — Comjjtes Benches, May 7, 1883, p. 1378. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. xi. 31 



