106 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIV. 



was covered with a thin coat of transparent mucus. This, 

 however, was unfortunately destroyed by the action of the 

 Formalin solution in which I at first attempted to preserve 

 the specimen, so that no trace of it now remains. 



Beneath the skin lie two or three layers of longitudinal 

 muscular fibre, also the usual inner circular series of the 

 same. These enabled the animal to increase or shorten its 

 length considerably, its body after death measuring nearly 

 two inches longer than while it was alive. 



The body is hollow, furnished with one pore at the 

 anterior end. This represents the mouth, which is simple 

 and unarmed. A little below the mouth lie the four oval 

 papillce marked A A in the drawing. 



By means of these the animal clings on to its host during 

 its parasitic life, and they afterwards serve as organs of sexual 

 attachment, when the animal becomes free. 



The mouth appears to lead immediately into a long 

 intestinal canal, which runs through the entire length of the 

 body, and has no anal opening. At a point just above the 

 tip of the tail, marked B, is the outlet of the excretory canals. 

 These canals run back one on each side of the intestinal 

 canal for a considerable distance. 



The animal has no circulating apparatus. The drawing 

 represents the appearance of the extremities of the animal 

 magnified ( x 200) under the microscope, after they had been 

 rendered partly transparent by the action of glycerine, &c. 

 A perusal of this drawing may help to make the above short 

 description more intelligible. 



Mr. Haly, Director of the Colombo Museum, who has 

 been kind enough to read over this Paper, is of opinion that 

 the animal is one of those which, according to Claus, live in 

 the body cavity of insects, finally escaping into damp earth, 

 when they attain maturity and breed. 



3. Mr. Harward next read a Paper entitled : — 



