638 
GILBERT E. JOHNSON. 
worm was kept out of the watch-glass, so that no soil- 
nematode, which might happen to have been swallowed 
with the earth passing through the alimeutaiy canal, could 
pass out into the water by the anal aperture. In almost 
every case a few larval nematodes of the active nephridial 
kind were found in the water around the worm after two or 
three hours. From the elimination of the anus as a means of 
exit there is every probability that the nematodes, being the 
active form, came from the nephridia, escaping by the 
nephridiopores. 
That nematodes originally obtained from an earthworm 
will, when placed in a small quantity of water with another 
worm, make every effort to enter the second worm by any 
available orifice has been demonstrated experimentally by 
de Ribaucourt (11, p. 297) in the case of a smaller earthworm, 
Notogama foetida, the brandling. I have myself on one 
occasion seen two larval nematodes with their anterior ends 
buried in the external surface of the body of a small earth- 
worm about 1'5 inches long. They were probably entering 
by the pores. That the pores are capable of affording a 
sufficiently Avide passage is shoAvn by the effect of a sudden 
application of chloroform vapour. The worm is made to 
discharge forcibly through its pores la,rge quantities of 
coelomic fluid containing not only amoBbocytes, but also 
occasionally both active and encysted nematode larv*. 
It seems probable, thei’efore, that during the life of the 
earthworm the larval nematodes pass out and in again by the 
external apertures of the coelomic cavity and spend longer 
or shorter periods in the soil or even enter a different worm. 
In order to ascertain by direct means whether Rh. pellio 
can be actually found living a free life in the soil, samples 
of garden earth Avere examined from time to time. Larval 
nematodes Avhicli were discovered Avere removed, andattenqAts 
Avere made to rear them to maturity Avith a vieAV to estab- 
lishing their identity by means of the sexual charactei’S. 
From some cause not yet understood the attempts proved 
unsuccessful and the nematodes died before reaching maturity. 
