SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 299 



parasites occur in long, greatly-tangled, tubular and branching 

 sporocysts. These are represented in A and F, Fig. 4. They 

 are full of larvae in various stages of development, but these 

 are rather more numerous than are shown in the figures. The 

 fully-developed Cercarise are represented in Fig. 4, B and C, 

 and less mature ones are shown by D and E. The body of the 

 worm is covered by very closely set spines, arranged in trans- 

 verse rows. The tails are extremely long and highly mobile, 

 retaining this mobility for some time even after they have 

 been accidentally detached from the body. The living sporo- 

 cysts and larvae make most interesting objects, but apart from 

 their occurrence there is nothing remarkable to record about 

 them. Except for the very long tails their characters are just 

 such as have been described by Miss Lebour. 



A Myxosporidian from the Hake. 



In February of this year, Dr. Hanna, Port Medical Officer 

 for Liverpool, sent me the head of a large hake which exhibited 

 several tumours. There were three of the latter : one situated 

 just in front of each orbit and the third exactly between the 

 other two and on the roof of the skull. Each was about an 

 inch in diameter and was raised above the general surface by 

 about half to three-quarter inch. As usual the skin was much 

 broken over these tumours. Cutting down into them it was 

 found that they were cartilaginous and that each was full of 

 little opaque specks, about one-half a millimetre in average 

 diameter. This, of course, at once suggested the nature of 

 the tumours — hypertrophy of the cartilage of the head due to 

 an extensive infection by a Myxosporidian parasite. In the 

 Twelfth Annual Report of this Laboratory (for 1903, pp. 46-62), 

 Dr. H. M. Woodcock described various Myxosporidian parasites 

 from local fishes, including one from the cartilage of the auditory 



