284 



of the ovary of the dorsicole (1 mm long). Hence the reference was 

 introduced with the word "compare". 



Besides presenting the spectacle of a tilt with a wind-mill, the 

 above quoted passages with Beard's interpretation of my fig. 56, are 

 replete with information which they were never intended to convey. 

 First they show that Beard either did not take the pains to read my 

 account of the triplet ovarian cells and their migration — since recog- 

 nized and confirmed by Prouho^ — or that he has purposely ignored 

 this most vital portion of my paper. In either case he has egregiously 

 misrepresented the actual conditions. Second, his interpretation shows 

 that he is inadequately acquainted with Myzostome material, or he 

 never could have postulated the existence of such an egg as the large 

 one in. fig. 56 in a young side-wall hermaphrodite, nor have supposed 

 that I could regard it as a young oocyte. And third, we have a fair 

 sample of the facile and superficial explanation which runs riot through 

 more than one page of Beard's paper. 



Even the admission that my reference was slightly obscure does 

 not excuse Beard, for I was justified in not extending my account 

 and introducing more figures of M. glaòrum because this species is in 

 all essential morphological characters like M. cirriferum which 

 had been previously considered at some length. But that there might 

 be no doubt concerning the agreement between the two species, 

 I introduced a frontal section (fig. 24) which Beard does not deign to 

 notice. It is true that it happens to be taken from a disci cole 1,25 mm 

 long, but is shows, nevertheless, conditions of the very same nature as 

 those represented for M. cirriferum, viz. the origin, migration, fixation 

 and incipient growth of the oocytes with their attendant "Nährzellen''. 

 This fig. 24 which covers the conditions described for my 

 stages 6a and 6b might have been studied with profit by Beard. 

 It would have shown him that the peritoneal epithelium — and 

 this is true even in far earlier stages — is much flattened as I have 

 represented it and not cuboidal or of the impossible shape shown in 

 his figures. Beard certainly makes strong claims when he asks us to 

 believe that these figures demonstrate the origin of the oocytes and 

 "sperm-mother cells" from the general peritoneal epithelium, for the 

 lithographer's art was never more vainly employed. 



The nine stages of M. glahrum described by me were selected 

 from a large amount of material , several hundred specimens, in fact, 

 of very difierent sizes ranging from 3 — 4 mm. My sectioned material 

 of stages 6 a (dorsicoles), 6 b and 7 (discicoles) are all in the neighbor- 



6 Henri Prouho, Dioïcité etHeririaphroditisme chez lesMyzostomes. Zoolog. 

 Anzeig. 1895. No. 486. p. 4. 



