252 SUMMAET or CUEEES'T RESEAKCHES EELATTNG TO 



ordinary cLrcmnstEinceSj it does vary considerably in confinement, 

 because the creature is then obliged to use such material as it can get. 



BalanoglossiLS.* — M. A. F. Marion has a preliminary notice of 

 two new species of Balanoglossus, one from Yokohama, which he calls 

 B. haclid. and the other from near Marseilles — B. talaboti. The 

 former has its trunk remarkably flattened, the cartilaginous skeleton 

 of the branchial apparatus is simple, and the intestinal portion of the 

 digestive tube has no hepatic projection. Horizontal sections of the 

 dorsal groove show the presence of a trunk which corresponds to the 

 dorsal nervous axis seen in the Balanoglossi of Kaples. B. talahoti 

 has the body almost regularly cylindrical, the proboscis is conical 

 and short, the branchial skeleton simple, and there are hepatic dorsal 

 prolongations ; as in some other species, the mucus given off by the 

 hypodermis has a penetrating odour. The cartilage of the axis of 

 the proboscis is not homogeneous, but contains in its midst cellular 

 fusiform bodies, which call to mind the true cartilages of the 

 Chordata. 



Balanoglossus samiensis. — M. E. Kcehler discovered | this new 

 species of Balanoglossus on the shore of Herm. Its length is about 

 35 cm. ; it is yellow and orange anteriorly, green in the hepatic 

 region, and colourless posteriorly. There is a deep median, dorsal 

 groove behind the collar, which extends up to the hepatic region. 

 This species secretes a quantity of mucus which has a strong odour 

 of iodoform. His study of the proboscis confirms Bateson's descrip- 

 tions. The proboscis-gland is described, and the author concludes 

 that it has a very intimate relation to the circulatory system, analogous 

 to that of the madreporic gland of Echinids. He was unable to 

 find the central canal in the anterior part of the nervous system, such 

 as Bateson has described ; the nerve-cord, posteriorly, gradually 

 approaches the epithelium of the dorsal surface of the body, and the 

 canal, which is here present, opens to the surface. The nerve-fibres 

 in the ventral part of the cord extend to the anus. He regards the 

 pore as the remnant of the invagination by which the nerve-cord is 

 formed. Anteriorly, at the junction of the collar with the proboscis, 

 the nerve-cells gr-adually pass into the epidermis, and the fibres form 

 a sub-epidermal layer upon the proboscis. The branchial apertures 

 are the same as in B. da.vigera. 



This is no doubt the same species as that exhibited to the 

 Zoological Society of London, on November 17th, by Prof. F. J. Bell. 



M. G. Pouchet considers j that the species of Balanoglossus, 

 described by Ko&hler as new, is probably the same as that studied by 

 various previous observers. Amongst others, Quatrefages, Lacaze- 

 Duthiers, and Bateson. He draws attention to the green phosphor- 

 escence of this species, which is caused by the slightest excitement. 



* Comptes Eendas, cL. (1885) pp. 1289-91. 



t Ibid., cii. (1886) pp. 224-7. % Ibid., p. 272. 



