ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
79 
fused centres, and the genital organs, which, on the whole, resemble 
those of leeches. A full memoir is promised. 
New Capitellid.*— M. Felix Mesnil describes Capitellid.es Giardi 
g. et sp. n. from the coast of France. The animal is of small size (about 
10 mm.) ; the thorax has 9 segments : the first six with biramose capil- 
lary setae ; the seventh, eighth, and ninth with hooded hooks. The two 
last have, in the adults of both sexes, modified dorsal setae, which form 
a copulatory apparatus. This character distinguishes it from Capitella , 
between which and Capitomastus the new genus must be placed. 
Physiological Experiments with Clepsine.f— Prof. A. Kowalevsky 
injected blue litmus into the gut ; it turned red in the crop, but remained 
blue in the intestine, except at the terminal part, where it was red. The 
character of the gut-contents is therefore first acid, then alkaline, and 
finally acid again. Lymph-cells in the coelomic lacunae and canals take 
up injections of Indian ink, carmine, and bacteria, and digest the latter 
phagocytieally. But such substances are not taken up by certain large 
“ acid ” cells on the walls of the coelomic canals (except the subdermals 
and laterals), which absorb litmus and retain it in the form of red 
granules. Powdered substances are also taken up by the cells of the 
nephridial capsules, which also act as phagocytes. The nephridial 
cells themselves do not act thus. After injection of ammoniacal car- 
mine, red drops are after a time found in the nephridial capsules, probably 
through the mediation of the “ acid cells,” which yield up the pigment 
to the leucocytes, or are devoured by them. 
Nematohelminthes. 
Life-History of Trichina.^ — Mr. J. W. Graham has studied especi- 
ally the vexed question of the passage of the Trichinae from the gut 
to the muscles. The chief arguments in support of active migration 
are : — (1) the occurrence of young Trichinae in the body-cavity ; (2) the 
occurrence of the same free in the connective tissue ; and (3) the un- 
equal distribution in the different groups of muscles. Graham seeks 
to show that these arguments do not prove that active migration is the 
normal mode of distribution. The arguments in support of the view 
that the parasites are carried by the blood stream are : — (1) the occur- 
rence of embryos in the blood ; (2) the occurrence of an embryo in an 
artery of the diaphragm ; (3) the occurrence of embryos in the muscle- 
capillaries : (4) the lesions and bleeding of muscle-capillaries ; (5) the 
occurrence of embryos beside blood extravasations in the heart-muscle ; 
(6) the presence of embryos in haemorrhagic clots in the lungs ; and 
(7) the rapidity of the distribution. 
Not only the sarcolemma, but the destroyed contractile substance 
must be recognised as having a share in the encapsuling, though neither 
forms the permanent capsule, which is due to the connective tissue. The 
connective tissue-cells or leucocytes probably have a fatal action on 
many of the Trichinae. 
* Zool. Anzeig., xx. (1897) pp. 441-3. 
t Mem. Acad. Imp. St. Pe'tersbourg, v. (1897) pp. 1-15 (1 pi.). See Zool. 
Centralbl., iv. (1897) pp. 838-9. 
X Arch. Mikr. Anat., 1. (1897) pp. 219-75 (3 pis.). 
