4 Verm. 
VERMES. 
Marion (47) reports two Neraertines from Marseilles. 
The Recorder has not seen the two following papers, which are written 
in Russian: Meroschkowsky, Ueber neue Turbollarien des Wcisseu 
Meeres (St. Petersburg: 1878, 20 pp., containing Alauretta, g. n., and 
2 spp. nn. of Frostomum and 1 of Mesostomum) ; Metschnikoff, Untersuch- 
ungen iiber die Entwickelung der Planarien, in Notizen der neurussischen 
Ges. Naturf. (Odessa) v. i. Nor has he been able to see Eisen’s treatise 
on the anatomy of Ocnerodrilus, N. Act. Ups. x. ; or Dounon’s ‘ Descrip- 
tion des parasites* (Toulon : 1878). 
Anatomy, Development, &c. 
Gralf (5) finds new evidence to support the doctrine that the rod- 
shaped bodies found in the parenchyma and the urticating capsules are 
homologous structures ; he states that the longitudinal bands of the 
dermo-muscular tube are separated by interspaces ; that a certain num- 
ber of forms have no differentiated digestive tract, and that various stages 
in the development of the coelom may be made out in the Turhellaria. 
Kennel (6) has observed Fasciola terrestris, 0. F. M., and Geodesmus 
hilineatus, Metschnikoff, and was fortunate enough to obtain a specimen of 
the former, which produced young under his eyes, these were almost com- 
pletely white; in the main his observations on the generative organs 
agree with those of Moseley (on Bhynchodesmus), but he regards the 
primitive vascular system of this author as forming the longitudinal 
nerve-trunks. 
Metschnikoff (14) relates some experiments on species of Mesostomum, 
in which he found that nutrient particles were taken into the cells of the 
digestive tract, and he concludes that there are Turhellaria without any 
differentiated digestive system, or in which the primitive method of 
digestion is still retained ; he is, however, careful to point out that there 
are other forms of the same group in which the ordinary modo is always 
found. , 
No digestive ferments were to be found in T. serrata (Fredericq, Bull. 
Ac. Belg. (2) xlvii. No. viii. pp. 221 & 222, Arch. Z. exper. vii. 3, p. 397) ; 
this is evidently because they live in media which are rich in them, but 
their own integument is able to resist the action of the ferments secreted 
by their host, as was shown by some experiments with Ascaris marginata. 
In Planaria neapolitana, Goette (4) finds that two terminal vesicles 
are extruded from the egg previou.s to segmentation, and that the animal 
becomes very much like a Pilidium ; and he concludes that the develop- 
mental history of the Nemertines may be referred to that of the P. 
dendroccela. 
Kennel (7) gives an elaborate account of the anatomy of Malacoh- 
della, which he agrees with Semper & Hoffmann in regarding as one of the 
Nemertinea, among which it should form a new family, Malacobdellidce, 
distinguished by having no armature to the spines, two layers in the mus- 
cular tube, no cephalic grooves or lateral organs, enteric canal simple, 
nerve trunks united by an anal commissure. Geonemertes palensin, 
Semper {not pelacnsis [Semper] nov pelccensis [Claus]) is also described iu 
