The Sunfish as a Host. 85 



of those who in earlier times directed their attention to the 

 gronp. A glance at the literature of tapeworms renders this 

 truth especially significant. Some investigators, indeed, spare 

 themselves a vast deal of trouble by altogether ignoring the 

 labours of previous writers ; but deprecating this mode of 

 procedure, we have always considered it due to antecedent 

 observers to express some recognition of their researches, even 

 in those instances where recent discovery has demonstrated 

 the fallacy of their facts and theories. In this view, therefore, 

 we offer a synonomy of the tapeworm, or strobila under consi- 

 deration, which we take to be as follows : — 



Gymnorhynchus rejptans, Rudolphi, Bremser, Blainville, Nord- 

 mann, Dujardin. 



Gymnorhynchus horridus, John Goodsir. 

 Acanthorhynchus reptans, Diesing. 

 Bothryorhynchus continuus, Van Lidth de Jeude. 

 JBothryocephalus jpatulus, Leuckart. 



Anthocephalus elongatus, Eudolphi, Nitzsch, Nordmann, 

 Drummond, Dujardin. 



Anthocephalus macrourus, Bremser. 

 Floricejps saccatus, Cuvier. 

 Floriceps elongatus, Blainville. 

 Scolex gig as, Cuvier. 



Here it will be seen that we have the same tapeworm de- 

 scribed by twelve authors under ten different titles, whilst not 

 less than seven of these authorities have considered the animal 

 as referable to two separate species ; moreover, as if to render 

 " confusion worse confounded," several of them have adorned 

 their descriptions with extremely inaccurate figures. Sys- 

 tematists and others who have not been fortunate enough to 

 examine the species for themselves have naturally placed great 

 store by the various representations given by Cuvier, Rudolphi, 

 Bremser, Leuckart, and others ; and thus the figure of one 

 author is taken to represent a different species from that given 

 by another, and a new name has been applied accordingly. 

 Had the distinguished Professor J. P. Van Beneden, of the 

 Catholic University of Louvain, chanced to have stumbled on 

 this species, his skilful pencil would not have failed to have 

 added another exact picture to the beautiful series of figures 

 which illustrate his Recherches sur la faune littorale de Bel- 

 gique, and he would thus have dissipated many doubts as to 

 the identity of the species. For our own part, we have not 

 hesitated to expose the accumulated errors which have crept 

 into helminthological literature ; and while offering an accu- 

 rate illustration drawn to nature, we at the same time take 

 leave to observe that this tapeworm should both in the first 

 and last instances have been described under the appropriate 



VOL. II. — NO. JI. H 



