438 DR. p. E. BEDDARD ON 



as the ultimate receptacle of the ripe eggs, being closed to form a 

 spherical capsule. It is this region which suggests the paruterine 

 organ of Chapmania, a comparison which Fuhrmann seems, in 

 the memoir quoted, to hold as possible, though Hamann compares 

 this swollen and metamorphosed part of tlie uterus with a shell- 

 gland (a comparison which seems to be negatived by the discovery 

 of an ordinaiy shell-gland by Zschokke and others). In no 

 genus, however, is there quite so intimate a connection between 

 the uterus and what is certainly a paruterine organ as in 

 Chajmiania. It is quite likely that Mesocestoides has preserved 

 the original relationship between these parts of the reproductive 

 system. 



The access, therefore, of the ripe eggs in the uterus to the 

 paruterine is thus assured ; and the drawing to Avhich I have 

 referred (text-fig. 4) shows this movement in progress. The 

 eggs occupy the central hollow region of the paruterine organ, 

 and are to be seen in transit in various parts of the same and 

 of the uterus. I have observed eggs entangled, as it were, in 

 the lax tissue forming the plug of calcareous bodies *. There is 

 no doubt but that here the transference of ova to the paruterine 

 from the uterus is quite direct. They could hardly reach it by 

 another route, in view of the free continuity of the two sacs. 



Nevertheless, another view has been advanced by Fuhrmann t. 



In his important resume of the genei'a of Cestodes found in 

 birds, this author remarks in the definition of the genus Chap- 

 mania — " Die Eier gelangen in einen stark verzweigten Uterus 

 vind von da wie bei Davainea in Parenchymkapseln, worauf sie in 

 abgeldsten Gliedern in ein amVorderrand gelegenes breites, grosses 

 Paruterinorgan gepresst werden, das eine Kapsel um sie bildet." 

 This definition is accepted by Ransom, who practically translates 

 it in his general survey % of tlie Cyclophyllidea. In a later and 

 fuller table of distinctions of the genei'a of Davaineidte § this is 

 altered. In the latter. Ransom says (ns part of his definition of the 

 genus Chapmania), "Eggs pass anteriorly into a paruterine organ 

 from the uterus either directly or after the disappearance of the 

 uterine wall and the envelopment of the eggs in individual paren- 

 chymatous capsules." This alternative statement as to the fate of 

 the ova is apparently due to an earlier definition by Fuhrmaini of 

 the genus Chapmania ||, which runs (so far as concerns the matter 

 under discussion) as follows — " Die Eier, statt im Parenchym zu 



* It may be pointed out that, in his figure of Chapmania longicirrliosa (later 

 regarded as identical with Idiogenes flaffeUum), Fiihmiann (Centralb. f. Bakt. u. 

 Parasit. Bd. 41, p. 81, fig. 3) represents a mass of calcareous bodies such as occurs 

 in Chapmania tauricolUs, but upon the opposite side of the paruterine organ, i.e. 

 upon its anterior face. If this be not an error there is perhaps here an additional 

 point of distinction between the two genera. 



t Zool. Jahrb. Suppl.-Bd. x. J Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. no. 69, 1909. 



F" § " A New Cestode from an African Bustard," Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vol. xl. 

 p. 646, 1911. 



r, II Centralb. f. Bakt. u. Parasit. Bd. 41, 1906, p. 83. This memoir, however, is 

 not quoted bj^ Eansoni, which is merely an oversight, as he refers to it in 

 a footnote enumerating the sj'nouyms of Idiogenes flagellum. 



