ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 955 



body, then bends round and extends along the ventral surface of the 

 animal as far as the hinder pole of the body, where it ends in the 

 generative cone. At the base of this cone the efferent duct of the 

 vesicula seminalis opens into the uterus ; the yolk-glands, which extend 

 over the whole ventral surface of the worm, pass the yolk into an un- 

 paired duct by transverse ducts which arise at the level of the shell- 

 gland. The excretory pore is found on the dorsal surface, and almost 

 at the extreme end of the animal. 



Taenia eucumeriiia in Man.* — Prof. E. Brandt gives an account of 

 two cases of Tsenia cucumerina in Man. From one patient forty-eight 

 specimens, which varied in length from ten to thirty-five centimetres, 

 were expelled ; this large number had set up enteric irritation and dis- 

 turbances of the nervous system. The patient, a j)easant boy of fourteen, 

 used to play with and caress a mastiff, which had lately become offensive 

 from the " lice " with which it was affected. Prof. Brandt has no doubt 

 that the " louse " was Trichodectes. In the second case thirty examples 

 were expelled after treatment, all with heads ; the patient was in the 

 habit of playing with a King Charles's spaniel which was troubled with 

 Tfichodecies. 



Tsenia saginata.f — Dr. F. Tuckerman has a supplementary note | 

 on this tape-worm, based on a second, even more remarkable, specimen. 

 The worm appears to have had a total length of 8-253 metres, but the 

 number of joints (727) is considerably below the number allowed by 

 most authorities to a much smaller worm. The smallest segment was 

 1 mm. broad and 2 mm. long ; the largest 4' 5 mm, across, with a length 

 of 31 mm. Several of the joints were 2 mm. thick. Supernumerary 

 joints were not infrequent. One sexually mature segment is so bent as 

 to form a right angle. 



5. Incertae Sedis. 



Contractile Vesicle of Rotifers.§ — M. L. C. Cosmovici thinks that 

 the characters of the contractile vesicle of Rotifers have hitherto been 

 misunderstood. He considers that, anatomically, it is nothing but a 

 cloaca. He thinks its function is to drive out the water which has 

 passed into a digestive tube, and not to expel the perivisceral fluid. 



Haplodiscns piger.|| — Mr. W. F. E. Weldon gives an account of the 

 remarkable new pelagic organism discovered by himself in the Bahamas. 

 In its mode of progression and superficial likeness to a protozoon it has 

 a strong resemblance to Leptodiscus medusoides of E. Hertwig. 



The body-wall is formed dorsally of two, and ventrally of three 

 layers ; dorsally, the cuticle is an apparently structureless or very finely 

 granular layer, while ventrally there is, beneath the layer which is like 

 the dorsal cuticle, an inner layer which appears in section as a very 

 narrow transversely striated band. A muscular layer seems to be 

 present on the ventral surface only ; in the region of the ductus ejacula- 

 torius some of the fibres pass inwards to form part of the sheath of that 

 organ. Beneath the layer of transverse fibres there is a longitudinal 



* Zool. Anzeig., xi. (1888) pp. 481-4. f Ibid., pp. 473-5. 



X See this Journal, 1888, p. 427, where by an error the account, which is by 

 Dr. Tuckerman, is ascribed to Dr. J. G. Stanton, from whom the specimen was 

 received. § Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xiii. (1888) pp. 167-9 



II Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., xxix. (1888) pp. 1-8 (1 pi.). 



