182 DR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE 



the sections and tearing away of an outer layer. This, however, 

 cannot be the case — for the reason that every section through one 

 of these patches showed the same state of affairs, and for the 

 additional reason that the gradual tapering away of the cortical 

 layer is plain when followed by the microscope. It is not, 

 however, easy to recognise everywhere in these bare patches the 

 remnants of the cortical layer ; this certainly m&y be a matter 

 of inferior fixing of the material. 



It is to be noted that in the ripe proglottids, where this re- 

 markable condition of the cortical layer is effected, the patches 

 may be both dorsal and ventral or dorsal or ventral ; that is to 

 say, both surfaces of the proglottid may be affected in the same 

 region or only one. The space taken up by such a patch is very 

 considerable, occupying the greater part of the segment in some 

 cases. It accounts largely for the lack of intersegmental furrows 

 remarked upon in this species by previous observers. The dis- 

 position of the cortical layer in the riper proglottids of Amabilia 

 is very remarkable, and is not quite paralleled in any Cestode 

 known to me. 



In these mature proglottids the longitudinal layer, where fully 

 developed, consists — as anteriorly — of two principal rows of 

 bundles. That nearest to the transverse muscular layer is the 

 largest, i. e., each bundle is composed of a much larger number 

 of fibres than the peripheral layer. There is, however, no great 

 regularity in the arrangement of the bundles in two rows, nor in 

 the form or size of the individual bundles. The transverse mus- 

 cular layer is made up of about a dozen fibres in section, and is 

 thus about as wide as a medium-sized bundle of the longitudinal 

 layer. The two muscle-layers together are of about the same 

 diameter as the cortical layer outside of the muscles. 



The longitudinal muscular layer is continued into the lateral 

 outgrowths of the proglottids. These appendages, so character- 

 istic of the family Amabiliidse, show in transverse section strands 

 of muscle passing from side to side, which must permit of a con- 

 siderable movement of the appendages. It may be that by these 

 means the worm is permitted to fix itself to the wall of the 

 intestine more securely, as well as to move from place to place ; 

 and their existence, as functional parapodia, may supplement the 

 feeble scolex to which attention has been drawn. 



§ The Water-vascular System. 



Diamare, in his account of this genus, figures * the vertical 

 canal with the internal water-vascular vessels opening into it, 

 and rightly represents the place of opening as being near to the 

 dorsal surface of the worm. He figures each of these as a single 

 tube and describes them in the legend of the cut as " Can. 

 deferens," and they are described in the text of the paper as the 

 two vasa deferentia, and are represented in another figure t as 



* Centralbl. f. Bait, u. Paras, xxi. p. 869, fig. 8. 

 t Ibid. p. 864, figs. 3, 4. 



