38 McIntosh, on the Gregariniform Parasite of Borlasia . 
training results from one’s own industry, one’s own researches, 
leading the observer to be self-dependent, and capable of 
forming an independent judgment. It is, however, a matter 
of the profoundest regret that the important departments of 
human knowledge to which I have alluded should be 
neglected in the majority of our schools ; and it is also a 
matter of deep regret that, in proportion to the size of our 
towns and the magnitude of our population, there should be 
extremely few institutions in which the elements of scientific 
instruction can be obtained, and that there should be an equal 
scarcity of public libraries in which the best works can be 
consulted. 
In conclusion, it is gratifying to revert to the favorable 
position occupied by the Society ; and though at present the 
Council are unable to announce an immediate success in their 
efforts to obtain suitable apartments for the transaction of its 
business, fresh applications on its behalf will be made to the 
Government; and it is felt that, as Her Majesty has com- 
manded the Society to be called Royal, and as His Royal 
Highness the Prince of Wales has become its patron, its 
claims to receive accommodation, similar to that accorded to 
other Societies, are of the strongest kind. 
On the Gregariniform Parasite of Borlasia. 
By W. C. McIntosh, M.D., F.L.S. 
(Communicated by G. Busk, F.R.S., F.R.M.S.) 
(Read March 13th, 1867.) 
Kolliker, in his contributions to the genus Gregarina, 
L. Duf.,* described in 1848 a gregariniform parasite of his 
Nemertes delineatus ( Folia delineata , D. Ch.) under the name 
of Gregarina Nemertis, which he had found in great numbers 
in the general cavity of the annelid. At least, he explains in 
a foot-note that his Darm is not the “ Russel ” of Quatre- 
fages, but the Darm of Rathke ; and since Quatrefages avers 
that Rathke considered the so-called proboscis as an organ of 
touch, it may be supposed the general cavity or cavities of 
the worm are here implied. He describes the structure of 
the parasite minutely, as having a spindle- or club-shaped 
body, furnished at its somewhat broader end with a knob 
# ‘ Zeitschrift f. wiss. Zool./ Bd. i, pp. 1 and 2, taf. i, fig, 4. 
