283 



figures in fig. 56 what is apparently an egg, lying in one of the 'ovaries'. 

 From my own examination of dorsicolous specimens it can be stated 

 that search has been long and laboriously made for any such appear- 

 ance. One swallow does not make a summer, and the picture of one 

 egg, even if there be no mistake as to the dorsicolous nature of the 

 form from which it was taken, does not make an hermaphrodite." And 

 again at p. 309 : 'In fig. 56 he figures a large egg, lying on the outer 

 side of one of these structures", and on p. 241 he remarks: — "spe- 

 cimens in this stage (6a, 1 mm long) are found, like those of the five 

 preceding stages, attached to the backs of older individuals ... In some 

 of the specimens a few of the oocytes have begun their growth while 

 still in the ovary (compare pi. 12. fig. 56o)." 



"In this passage and in the description of the plate it is not dis- 

 tinctly stated, that this figure is taken from a true dorsi- 

 colous specimen of M. (/labrum. The reader is left to infer that 

 this was really the case and the author leaves a loop-hole to doubt, 

 Avhere the observation, which of all others would decide the matter, 

 is concerned. A precise statement as to the place, from which the 

 specimen was taken, as to the number of such apparently herma- 

 phrodite dorsicolous forms in the author's possession, and as to the 

 number of obvious eggs in each of these, might have settled the point 

 for good. I would submit that Wheeler may have been mistaken in 

 referring this figure to a true dorsicolous specimen of M. (/labrum. It 

 may be suspected that it w^as taken from the side wall of a herma- 

 phrodite, and, as I recognized in 1SS4, such specimens are never true 

 males, but always contain eggs, as well as spermatozoa," etc. This 

 unfortunate fig. 56 again annoys Beard on p. 313, but by the time he 

 reaches p. 315 he has made up his mind concerning it: "I hold, until 

 the contrary has been proved, that the specimen of fig. 56 was. in all 

 probabitily, not a true dorsicole, but a young disc-form, which in early 

 life had chanced to attach itself to the side wall of a larger herma- 

 phrodite." 



After reading these tirades one turns to the incriminated fig. 56 

 to find that it has nothing whatever to do with the question 

 at issue! Had Beard taken the pains to read my paper he would 

 have found that fig, 56 is adequately described in the text on p. 256 

 and that it was merely introduced into the plate to show the appear- 

 ance of a couple of amoeboid parasites in the ovary of a large 31. 

 glabrutn (lì sten de d "with young and nearly full grown ova!'' 

 Incidentally a couple of young oocytes, which Beard overlooks, 

 notwithstanding the o of the reference refers to them rather than to 

 the very large ovum, are mentioned in connection with the description 



22* 



