NEW HUMAN CESTODE. 79 



away in a lump ; and it took mucli time to unravel them. This was 

 done under spirit. I then found that there were twelve specimens, of 

 which seven were tolerably perfect, though unnaturally twisted 

 and otherwise distorted. All were evidently much contracted by 

 the action of the spirit. Thus, of the perfect specimens, the 

 shortest measured Ij^^, and the longest only 85 inches. In most 

 examples the worm was broader at the head than elsewhere, 

 measuring in that situation precisely -^-^ of an inch. In one 

 specimen, however, the lower third of the strobile was actually 

 broader than the head — that is to say, it measured exactly y^ 

 of an inch transversely. These measurements were made with 

 great care ; but I was not prepared to find that Dr. Manson's ex- 

 aminations had yielded such marked differences of size. In a 

 recent communication he tells me that jn the living state the 

 parasites were from twelve to fourteen inches long, § of an inch 

 btoad, and -sV of an inch in thickness. 



With a pocket lens I could everywhere discern transverse 

 rugae. These, however, were not only more conspicuous in the 

 region of the head, but at the same time more regularly arranged. 

 In several specimens a distinct central longitudinal line was 

 observed, forming a ventral groove which extended from head to 

 tail. In these specimens the dorsal surface also showed indi- 

 stinct longitudinal lines, apparently due only to a backward 

 folding of the lateral margins of the strobile. Many other 

 grooves, markings, and prominences could be seen with ob- 

 jective glasses of low power ; but there was a want of uniformity 

 about them. Even with higher powers I failed to obtain any 

 certain evidence of either reproductive pores without or sexual 

 organs within the strobile. After soaking a specimen for 24 

 hours in glycerine, the calcareous corpuscles were as distinctly 

 seen as they must have been witnessed by Dr. Manson in the fresh 

 state, judging from a pen-and-ink sketch with which I have been 

 furnished. They are oval, flat bodies, having an average diameter 

 of about pjjVu of an inch. After enclosing a portion of the 

 strobile in a tube of melted was, and allowing it to harden, very 

 thin sections were obtained and examined; but none of these 

 yielded any trace of a testis, of an ovarium, or of an ovum. 



Thus it became clear that in Ligula Mansoni (for it had been 

 so provisionally named in the ' Lancet ') we had to deal with a 

 sexually immature parasite, comparable to the ordinary Ligula 

 simplicis^ima frequently found in the abdominal cavity of fresh- 



