ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 237 



followed up to the neighbourliood of the wheel-organ ; the transverse 

 canal described by Huxley in the cephalic region of Lacinularia has 

 not been detected by any subsequent observer. The author describes 

 the ciliated infundibula as having their thinner end attached to the 

 canal, and their broader one hanging freely into the ccBlom. From 

 the upper end a broad cilium projects into the lumen of the funnel, 

 and moves either rapidly or slowly ; Eckstein does not think that the 

 swellings are funnels — that is, he does not regard them as open at 

 their free end, but as being completely closed by a hemispherical 

 operculum, to the middle of which the long cilium is attached. Below 

 this operculum there is an orifice, which in the smaller species is 

 small and round, but is generally large and oval ; at this hole there 

 commences a very short tube, which leads at once into the lateral 

 canal. By the action of the cilium the waste products of the body 

 are forced into this canal, and so make their way by the contractile 

 vesicle to the exterior. The differences from this typical arrangement 

 which are found in various Rotifers are pointed out, and the resem- 

 blances to what Fraipont has found in the excretory organs of the 

 Trematoda are indicated. 



The club-shaped pedal organs are next considered, and the tendon 

 by which they are kept in place alluded to ; these organs are glands 

 with finely granular contents, and in their middle a line of greater 

 transparency may often be detected, which is probably the optical 

 expression of a groove, in which the secretion of the glands is 

 collected, and by which it is conveyed to the exterior. Sometimes 

 the secretion appears to serve as a means by which the foot may be 

 ghied down, in other cases it gives rise to a fine filament ; the function, 

 however, of this secretion is not so much to fix the animal down for 

 a time as to attach it until the third joint of the foot is firmly affixed, 

 when the first and second joints being retracted, a vacuum is formed. 

 Eespiration appears to be effected through the skin, and this appears 

 to be the function of the pores of Brachionus plicatilis. There is no 

 circulatory system developed. The author is unable to explain the 

 office of the " renal organs " discovered by Leydig in the young of 

 Floscularia, Stephanoceros, &c. (Cohn has already objected to Leydig's 

 view of the renal function of the organ in question) ; nor can he say 

 anything as to the organ found near the intestine in Squamella, or 

 the body which lies dorsally to the intestine, with which it is con" 

 nected, in all species of the genus. 



Eckstein next discusses the well-known phenomena of the 

 dimorphism of the sexes, and the structure and characters of the re- 

 productive organs ; in the Philodineidae the ovum passes through the 

 earlier stages of development in the uterus, but, owing to the move- 

 ments of the body, this apparently useful arrangement is of no 

 advantage to the student. Like some later observers, the author 

 would call the winter ova lasting ova, as they are by no means 

 developed in the winter season only, but are rendered safer by the 

 possession of a firm shell. As in other divisions of the animal king- 

 dom, parasitic habit has its eff'uct on the organization cf the parasitic 

 form, such as Seison, or Alhertia. 



