

1891.] - Zoology. IOI5 
the dull ones will be able to radiate a little light of their own if 
opportunity is given them to do something more than repeat the 
feeble beams of a text-book. And this is the greatly needed thing ; 
this is the essential thing,—that students should think for themselves. 
Original thought is the spirit of the present, the genius of the future. 
A rational course of study is the alembic which can precipitate such 
thought from a solution of confitsed and half-formed notions. Science 
itself is to be defined as that mass of facts within experience by which 
we criticize our primitive ideas. Therefore, everything should be bent 
to bringing forth true thought from the pupil; otherwise he cannot 
arrive at intellectual manhood.—Conway MCMILLAN, im Education. 
ZOOLOGY. 
+ 
The Anatomy of Phagocata.—Woodworth’s paper ! on the struc- 
ture of this Triclad is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the 
Turbellaria. This worm, described by Leidy forty years ago, has been 
neglected until now. Woodworth has investigated the anatomy in a thor- 
ough manner, and besides confirming Leidy’s account of the many phar- 
ynges—doubted by several helminthologists —has investigated all parts 
of the animal. Phagocata possesses a main pharynx which opens at 
the junction of the three branches of the alimentary tract, and, besides, 
many others which open into the posterior trunks of the intestine. 
These are arranged without apparent order, except that the further they 
are from the median pharynx the smaller they become. The develop- 
ment of the rhabdites is traced. They arise in gland cells lying in the 
mesenchyme, and pass up into the hypodermis, where they have an 
intercellular position, by means of tubular projections of the mother 
cells. Woodworth thinks the function of the rhabdites to be to aid in 
the capture of prey, since by their slow solution in water they form a 
thick mucus. The body of the animal is usually darkly pigmented, 
the pigment being scattered granules intercellular in position. In its 
nervous system Phagocata stands intermediate between Gunda and 
Rhynchodesmus. There is a superficial and a deeper portion, the two 
being indirectly connected by means of a marginal nerve. The vasa 
efferentia are products of the testes ; and the growth of the yolk glands 
1 Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., XXI., No. 1, 1891. 
Am. Nat.—November.—s. 



