LOUSE MITES. 



c^SE the maxillae before the mandibles, which is as bad as if we were 

 to put our lips behind our teeth. According to our view, the 



Mouth of Otonyssus sticholasius. 

 Copied from Maddox. 



Ditto, more liighly magnified. 



figure shews the mouth as looked at from beneath, or as if tiie 

 animal were lying on its back and we were looking down its 

 throat. That Dr. Maddox looked at it from above we do not 

 doubt, but w^e imagine that in looking through them he has 

 been deceived as to the perspective of the parts. It is to be 

 remembered that we are looking at the mouth of a creature only 

 a fifty-eighth of an inch in length and whose tissues are trans- 

 parent. Moreover, Dr. Maddox tells us that his specimens were 

 not examined in Hfe, but after being in glycerine and spirits of 

 wine and then treated with liquor of potass, and the laxity of the 

 tissues, after being in it and the great displacement that occurs in 

 neighbouring parts from slight compression, almost prevent the 

 possibility of assigning to each the proper position, while in the 

 natural state being often covered with exudation from the wound 

 that the parasite itself has made and filled with dense grumous 

 matter, exactitude in the description is by no means easy. Dr. 

 Maddox has little reason to complain, for the drawing of the 

 parts generally is admirable ; but in this instance we think he has 

 failed to recognise the relative depth at which the different parts 

 of the mouth stood from his eye. We would correct his reading 



X 



