ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICKOSOOPY, ETC. 



93 



Nematoid Parasite on Sugar-cane.*— Dr. A. Treub has lately dis- 

 covered on the roots of the sugar-cane in Java a nematoid parasite 

 which he calls Eeterodera javaniea. Its general habit is analogous to 

 that of Anguillula tritici, or of Eeterodera schachtii. The small females 

 penetrate into the main root through some cleft, or perhaps from the 

 growing point. They settle down at some point where a secondary root is 

 given off. This region is externally marked by a knot-like swelling due to 

 the increased growth of surrounding cells. Treub does not state to what 

 extent the parasite is hurtful. 



Cysticercus cellulosae in Brain of Man-t — The exception to the 

 ordinary life-history of Cestodes, as expressed in the occurrence of Taenia 

 solium and Cysticercus cellulosae within the same human form, has always 

 provoked some surprise. The experiments of Eedon and the close anato- 

 mical resemblances have led Leuckart and other authorities to regard it as 

 certain that the cystic form found in the brain of man was really the 

 Cysticercus cellulosae or the early stage of Taenia solium, and to explain its 

 abnormal occurrence as due to self-infection in some form or other. 



M. Adolphe Hannover questions this explanation and the postulate on 

 which it is based. The simultaneous occurrence, if the result of self- 

 infection, ought to be much more frequent than it is. The unusual posi- 

 tion of the Cysticercus, when compared with that exhibited by those in other 

 animals, e.g. pig, is also noteworthy. So, too, the peculiarities of form, 

 and the extraordinary size, suggest to him something more than a mere 

 physiological difference of environment. He has subjected the two forms 

 of Cysticercus in man and in pig to a careful and detailed scrutiny, and 

 though none of the differences chronicled are in themselves very note- 

 worthy, the combined differences are suggestive, if not of M. Hannover's 

 theory, then of the modifications of the same form in different surroundings. 



Bothriocephalus latns in Belgium.^ — Prof. E. van Beneden has a 

 careful discussion of the question of the existence in Belgium of this 

 large human tapeworm ; till lately, though found in Holland, it seems not 

 to have attacked the Belgians. The author states that Prof. Leuckart 

 thinks that railways, and the facility of communication which is their, 

 result, will lead to a gradual dissemination of parasites. 



Scolex polymorph.us.§ — Dr. F. Zschokke considers that Scolex poly- 

 morphus, which is found in the intestine of various species of Lopliius, 

 Gobius, and other fishes, is the larva of some species of Calliohothrum. It 

 has the rudiments of the four accessory suckers, and the central sucker ; 

 the muscles for moving the booklets are present, and the excretory system 

 is on the same type as in this form. 



The author considers that Wagoner's division of the scolices, according 

 to the mono-, bi~, and tri-locular condition of the suckers, is unnatural ; they 

 are merely various stages in the development of one and the same larva. 



The Diplostomidse-ll — M. J. Poirier has examined Diplostomum siamense, 

 D. jpseudostomum, and Polycotyle ornata of W. Suhm (not Suhn as printed 

 by the author). He finds that the genital orifices are not separately 

 placed on the ventral surface of the lanceolate region of the body, but that 

 they open into a common cloaca at the hinder end ; the orifice ordinarily 



* Naturforscher, xix. (1886) p. 401. 



t Journ. de I'Anat. et de la Physiol., xxii. (1886) pp. 508-14. 



X Bull. Acad. K. Sci. Belg., Iv. (1886) pp. 265-80. 



§ Arch. Sci. Phys. et Nat., xvi. (188o; pp. 354-6. 



II Arch. Zool. Exper. et Gen., iv. (1886) pp. 327-46 (3 pis.). 



