536 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
they are most numerous in the suckers. A cell jdaced at some distance 
from the surface sends out a fibril to the cuticle, which passes into a 
pyriform space in that layer, and ends with a plate shaped like the head 
of a nail. The authors frequently observed that a small tuft was placed 
on the terminal vesicle. Free nerve-endings have not been certainly 
observed in Trematodes. The methylen-blue method shows that two 
kinds of nerve-trunks enter into each sucker, one sensory and one motor. 
The former consists of the central processes of the sensory cells, while 
the latter is connected with a nerve-plexus which lies in the musculature 
of the sucker. 
Aspidogaster conchicola.* — Mr. J. Stafford has a preliminary 
notice of his researches on the structure and development of this worm. 
Cross-sections of the adult show that a transverse muscular system 
separates the intestine and some of the organs of the generative system 
above from the large vessels of the excretory system, the lateral nerves, 
and the hermaphrodite organs below. At the posterior end of the intes- 
tine this septum thins out. On each side in the ventral sucker there is a 
longitudinal nerve with a collateral plexus, the whole of which is in 
communication with the marginal sense-organs by means of thick lateral 
branches. The funnel organ, which recent observers have been unable 
to find, is, the author states, easily distinguished by a practised eye. 
Some corrections are made in the homologies of parts of the generative 
apparatus. The penis is stated to be a highly complex organ, the 
structure of which led Yoeltzkow into numerous errors, but the details 
of the structure cannot be clearly explained unless illustrated by 
drawings. 
Anthocotyle/f— M. P. Cerfontaine has made, under the direction of 
Prof. Van Beneden, a close study of this fish parasite. He describes in 
detail the organs of adhesion, which appear to be of remarkable com- 
plexity. Owing apparently to the large size of the first pair of adhesive 
organs the digestive apparatus is found ; to ramify in its valves. Of the 
other organs of the body most attention is paid to the female reproductive 
organs. The author’s review of the characters of this form convince him 
that Yan Beneden and Hesse were fully justified in forming a new genus 
for its reception. 
Action of Methylen-blue’ on the Body 4 — Hr. G. Brandes injected 
sodium chloride solution of methylen-blue into a frog’s stomach, and 
killed the frog after a few days. Mouth-cavity and intestine were 
distinctly, in part intensely, coloured, but the gullet and stomach 
were unaffected. Small forms of Distomum in the small intestine were 
slightly coloured in their seminal vesicles, but those in the lung, and 
Echinorhynchi in the small intestine were unaffected. 
A living Distomum ovocaudatum , under the tongue, was unaffected, 
except along certain subcuticular lines, forming incomplete rings 
anteriorly, and four longitudinal bands posteriorly. On these last a 
distinct cross striping was discernible, and beneath the groups of fibres 
lay a large darkly coloured cell whose processes ran to the fibres. It 
* Zool. Anzeig., xviii. (1895) pp. 282-4. 
t Bull. Acad. Boy. Beige, lxv. (1895) pp. 510-27 (1 pi.). 
X Abh. Nat. Gesellsch. Halle, xix. (1893) pp. 81-2. 
