6 Franklin D. Barker and George W. Covey 



remaining in the balsam but a short time, an opaque streak ap- 

 peared in the median Hne of the body, from the posterior end to 

 the juncture of the middle and anterior thirds, at which point it 

 branched into two streaks which in turn ended abruptly a little 

 anterior to the ovary. This streak appeared instantly, as if a tube 

 might have suddenly filled with some substance, or become 

 emptied of some substance, having such a density or such a 

 refractive index as compared with the balsam, as to clearly dif- 

 ferentiate it. From this central streak there soon appeared 

 branches radiating in all directions, and rebranching until they 

 reached to the cuticle, and the whole worm became opaque. I 

 decided that these streaks marked the outline of the excretory 

 system, and later, in my study of cross, sagittal and frontal sec- 

 tions I corroborated this theory as will be shown in the description 

 of the excretory system, given later. 



In addition to the toto mounts, series of sagittal sections, series 

 of cross-sections and series of frontal sections were made. All 

 sections were stained in Delafield's haematoxylin. 



As stated previously, three species of trematodes were found in 

 the intestine. One of these species, when examined in a living 

 state, showed the body to be covered with long spines but after 

 staining and destaining in acid alcohol it was no longer possible 

 to see these spines. The disappearance of the spines was un- 

 doubtedly due to the dissolving action of the acid alcohol. This 

 clearly shows that the presence or absence of spines in stained 

 and mounted specimens cannot be relied on as a differentiating 

 character between species of trematodes. 



This occurrence also emphasizes the value of the examination 

 of specimens in a living condition or before treating them with 

 acid reagents. 



MORPHOLOGY OF Telorcliis (Profenes) leptiis n. sp. 

 I regret that lack of time prevented me from making a detailed 

 study of all the parasites which were found in the turtles, but 

 this will be done by other students in this laboratory. The trema- 

 tode found in greatest numbers and designated as type A was 

 studied in detail and the description of this form follows. The 



198 



