SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
Ill 
1877, p. 324, we gave a brief account of a new form of vesicular parasite 
(< Staphylocystis biliarius), detected by M.’ Villot, adhering to the biliary 
vessels of Glomeris. That gentleman has since described a second species 
under the name of Staphylocystis micracanthus , from its hooklets being 
smaller than those of the first-named form. The singularity of the habitat 
of these larval Cestoids is now explained by the discovery made by 
M. Villot, that they are the scolices of Tsenias infesting the intestines of the 
Shrews, as these small mammals will undoubtedly devour any specimens of 
Glomeris that may fall in their way. According to Dujardin, our common 
Shrew ( Sarex vulgaris) harbours a Tape-worm named Tcenia scut.igera 7 
whilst the little Garden Shrew ( Sarex araneus ) isinfested by three forms 
of these parasites, namely, Tcenia scalaris, tiara , and pistillum. M. Villot 
regards the distinction between T. scutigera and scalaris as founded in error, 
and thinks that these two forms constitute probably a single species, 
which would therefore infest both species of Shrews ; of this species his 
Staphylocystis bilianus is probably the scolex. S. micracanthus he refers with- 
out hesitation in the same capacity to Tcenia pistillum. 
The history of these parasites is therefore as follows, as interpreted by 
M. Villot : — The adult progrottids, or so-called joints of the full-grown Tape- 
worm, loaded with their cargo of eggs, issue from the intestine of the Shrew 
and remain on the damp ground until some wandering Glomeris, either by 
accident or design, takes them into his stomach, probably along with the 
decayed vegetable matters on which the Myriopod habitually feeds. Once 
in the stomach of a suitable host, the young embryos of the parasite will 
make their way into the biliary ducts, which open near the commencement 
of the animal’s intestine, and, travelling along these for some distance by the 
agency of their stylets, will finally traverse the walls of those vessels to 
take up their abode in the. midst of the fatty tissue. Here they lose their 
embryonic stylets, which are no longer of service to them, pass to the 
vesicular state, undergo proliferous multiplication, and become scolices. A 
Shrew meeting with one of these Myriopods would eat him up without 
hesitation, and thus introduce into his own stomach perhaps a hundred or 
more scolices, which would at once attach themselves to the intestine and 
bud into perfect Tape-worms. — Comptes rendus , November 19, 1877. 
Purple Oysters. — It appears that last autumn the oysters in the Bay of 
Arcachon acquired a very remarkable violet colour. M. Descoust finds that 
this coloration is due to the presence in the oyster-basin of great quantities 
of a Floridean Seaweed, Rhytiphlcea tinctoria , the spores of which are 
very highly coloured. He finds that the colouring matter of these spores is 
assimilated by the oysters, and retained by them, more or less modified, in 
the lobes of the mantle and the branchiae, and that they cannot get rid of it 
unless the water of the oyster-parks is sufficiently diluted by rains. He 
says that last summer, and especially during the months of June, July, and 
August, the drought was extreme all about the basin of Arcachon ; hence 
the oysters became gorged with the colouring matter, the water of the 
parks not being sufficiently diluted to dissolve the latter. — Comptes rendus , 
November 19, 1877. 
The Great Newfoundland Calamaries. — Prof. Verrill has lately had an 
opportunity of examining a fine example of one of these gigantic Cepha- 
