738 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



A. turgida were also found in tlie Balearic Islands. Of some of 

 these species Dr. Oerley has presented specimens to the Trustees of the 

 British Museum. 



Occurrence of Corpuscles in the Red Vascular Fluid of Chaeto- 

 pods. * — Messrs, J. E. Blomfield and A. G. Bourne help to over- 

 throw the " accepted commonplace of zoological science," that the 

 fluid in question is devoid of corpuscles. They add to the list of 

 forms in which these corpuscles have been found Eunice and Nereis, 

 and this they have been able to effect by treating with 1 per cent, 

 osmic acid solution a portion of tissue well supplied by vessels, 

 or " a portion of one of the larger vessels removed to a slide with 

 two pairs of forceps, the blood being kept in it ; " the acid was 

 followed by picrocarmine, and the tissue treated with water and then 

 with glycerin. They point out the necessity of a gentle pressure on 

 the cover-slip, which causes the corpuscles to move up and down, and 

 so distinguishes them from the nuclei of the cells of the vessels 

 themselves. The corpuscles of Eunice are round and average ^^Vo ^^'^^ 

 in diameter, or are oblong and have a long diameter of vijo o iiich. 

 Nereis has rounded corpuscles from ^^Vo^ to ^^Jq^ inch in diameter. 



Thalassema neptuni.t — Professor Ray Lankester has been enabled 

 to study this Gephyrean in fresh specimens, collected on the south 

 coast of Devonshire in March. The coelomic liquid is opaque and of 

 a very dark red colour ; it contains " an immense number of perfectly 

 smooth spherical corpuscles, each of which is deeply impregnated 

 with haemoglobin," and there are in addition dark masses of brown 

 pigment. The red and brown pigments are easily separated, for fresh 

 water dissolves the hfemoglobin. In addition to the " hsemoglobinous 

 corpuscles," the usual amoeboid bodies were also found. Hfemoglobin 

 was further discovered in the muscles of the middle region of the 

 body, in the thick coelomic epithelium of the mesenterial membranes 

 and of the genital pouches. The vascular system is essentially similar 

 to that of EcMurus. By a careful system of examination the author 

 was able to convince himself that the funnels on the surface of the 

 cloacal pouches do open into them by a very minute pore. 



Two specimens out of a hundred were found to be sexually 

 mature, and in these the genital pouches extended over three-fourths 

 of the length of the body, "instead of being little sausage-shaped 

 bodies one-twelfth of the length of the worm from mouth to anus." 



Organization and Development of the Gordii-I — M. A. Villot 

 here publishes in full his observations on this subject, of which pre- 

 liminary notices have already appeared.§ He sujopresses the order of 

 Gordiacea formed by Von Siebold, places Mermis and Sphcerularia 

 with the Nematoids, and forms a new order Gordii for the genus 

 Gordius, which is to take its place at the head of the class Helminthes, 

 in the sub-class Nemathelminthes. 



* Quart. .Journ. Micr. Sci., xxi. (18S1) pp. 600-1. 



t Zool. Anzeig., iv. (1881) pp. 350-6. 



J Ann. Sci. Nat. (Zool.), xi. (1881) Art. 3, pp. 44 (2 pis.). 



§ See this Jonrnal, iii. (1880) p. 801 and cmte, p. 40. 



