40 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
a single penial seta. There are no calciferous glands or ventral pouches 
to the oesophagus. 
In a young worm, just escaped from the cocoon, there is no integu- 
mentary nephridial network ; in the young, again, the reproductive 
organs resemble those of other earthworms, but in the adult there is the 
large unpaired sac already mentioned ; this is developed from mesoblastic 
tissues, and is not, therefore, the morphological equivalent of the sperma- 
thecaa in Lumbricus, though it performs the same functions ; the sac, 
which is at first in open communication with the coelom, is formed 
internally and then grows out towards the epidermis ; the ovaries which 
are inclosed by it disappear before the sac is completed. 
The testes and vas deferens occupy the typical position and exhibit 
the typical structure, as do also the two pairs of sperm-sacs. The sperm- 
ducts are not, as in other Eudrilids, dilated to form sperm-reservoirs, 
but open into the tubular atria. There are three gizzards, and in the 
early part of the intestine there are three typhlosolar folds ; later on the 
median of these alone persists. The area which surrounds the setae of 
each side of the body is shut off from the general body-cavity, and a 
paired series of chambers is thus formed ; in the oesophageal region a 
perihaemal coelomic space surrounds the subcesopbageal vessels. 
Encystment of iEolosoma.* — Mr. F. E. Beddard has made 6ome 
observations on a British species of JEolosoma, which seem to show that 
this fresh-water Oligochsete undergoes encystation in autumn, when 
asexual reproduction ceases. The cysts are small enough to travel easily 
and thus effect the wide distribution of the species. 
B. Nemathelminthes, 
Ascaris lumbricoides found in peritoneal sac.f — W. Bergmann de- 
scribes a case in which the macerated body of an Ascaris was found close 
to the vermiform appendix of a patient who had died of peritonitis 
after perforation of the appendix by a coprolite or faecal calculoid. 
Apparently the presence of the worm was an accidental occurrence after 
the perforation. 
y. Platyhelminth.es. 
Othelosoma Symondsii.f — The form described under this name, in 
1869, by the late Dr. Gray, who regarded it as a Gastropod, was re- 
examined by Prof. L. Graff on his recent visit to this country, at the 
British Museum. He concludes that it is a Land Planarian, allied to, 
if not belonging to the genus Rhynchodemus. 
Haplodiscus piger.§— Prof. L. Graff comes to the conclusion that the 
form described under this name by Prof. Weldon, and regarded by him 
as a sexually mature Cestode or Trematode larva, is an acoelous Turbel- 
larian, and belongs to the genus Convolula. Had a specimen been 
examined entire instead of by sections only this would have been at once 
apparent. 
Ciliated Pits in Australian Land Planarians.j| — Dr. A. Dendy 
reports the discovery, in every Australian Land Planarian examined, of 
* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ix. (1892) pp. 12-19 (2 figs.). 
t Prager Med. Woehenschr., 1890, No. 50. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Farasitenk., x. (1891) p. 259. 
1 Zool. Anzeig., xv. (1892) pp. 7-9. § Zool. Anzeig., xv. (1892) pp. 6 and 7. 
j| Proc. Roy. Soe. Victoria, 1891, pp. 39-46 (1 pi.). 
