254 DR. F. E. BEDDARD ON 



tube of approximately circular contour in transverse section. At 

 its termination its walls are quite thin, and consist of little but a 

 membrane. But elsewhere, although there are no diverticula as 

 in the ripe uterus, the walls are laterally marked by a thick layer 

 of cells (text-fig. 52), which are the forerunners of the pear-shaped 

 cells which deck the diverticula of the mature uterus ; so, at least, 

 I pi'esume. These cells form a heap on each side, and are not 

 markedly pear-shaped. Rather, indeed, are they circular in 

 outline. . In many sections this uterine tube is seen to lie at 

 some distance from the ventral body- wall, and a certain thick- 

 ness of cortical pai-enchyma lies between it and the glandular 

 subcuticular layer. In other regions of the proglottid and for a 

 considerable number of consecutive sections, the shape of the 

 uterus in transverse section becomes pear-shaped, the tube thus 

 extending right up to the subcuticular layer, which is, however, 

 as far as I could ascertain, not pei'forated anywhere. 



The cavity of the uterus is here not large, and it is not swollen 

 with eggs, of which, indeed, but few are to be observed at this 

 stage in its cavity, and those not mature *. 



I have recently described in Ichthyotcenia gahonica'f prolonga- 

 tions of the uterus towards the exterior, the histological details 

 of which offer reasons for believing that they are rudimentary 

 (perhaps incipient) external utei'ine pores like those so plain in 

 Ophidotwnia. In the former species, however, there was not 

 always so marked an extension of the cavity of the uterus 

 as of the tissues forming its walls. In Solenotcenia, on the 

 other hand, Avhat is generally met with is rather an extension 

 of the uterine cavity which often came to underlie considerably 

 the subcuticular layer. A weak line is thus formed, which by 

 splitting forms the ventral groove so characteristic of the mature 

 proglottids of this Ichthyotpeniid. Occasionally, however, the 

 appioach of the prolongation of the uterus to the cuticle is 

 associated with the disappearance of the subcuticular layer for a 

 brief space. Such spots seem to me to represent the uterine 

 pores of Ophidotcenia. The existence of the i-emains of an 

 external pore is, I think, well shown in text-fig. 52. This 

 illustrates two out of about six sections through the uterus of a 

 not fully mature proglottid close to it, beginning at the ovarian 

 end of the proglottid. The uterus consists in each of these few 

 sections of a circular area suspended by a thin stalk from the 

 subcuticular layer. The stalk is not hollow but composed of a 

 nucleated layer of cells, continuous with the walls of the uterus, 

 and very distinctly not formed as a specialised tract of the 

 medullary parenchyma. In one of the two sections selected for 

 figuring here it appears to me that this duct, as I regard it, could 

 be followed as far as to the cuticle. I could not, however, see 



* I am, iiideerl, not quite certain tltat they are eggs. 

 t P. Z. S. 1913, p. 167, text-fig. 34. 



