F. J. Meggitt 
267 
sufficient to protrude the head through the anterior opening of the 
sheath. 
Cuticle and Musculature. 
Owing to the extremely small size of tliis species, it would be 
unprofitable to make any detailed observations upon the nicer points 
of the anatomy owing to the impossibility of sufficient accuracy. The 
following section consequently deals only with the more prominent 
points. 
There is a distinct cuticle, finely granular in some sections, in others 
apparently homogeneous : this contradiction is probably due to the 
var 3 dng action of the fixative upon a tissue in process of being sloughed 
off. The cuticle is bounded internally by a thin basement membrane, 
and externally has a slight roughening of the surface due apparently 
to a multitude of extremely fine and densely packed rods. This can be 
seen however only in specimens treated with special care, the external 
layer seeming to be brushed off by the hghtest touch. 
Under the cuticle is a single layer of longitudinal cuticular muscle 
fibres ; in transverse sections, these appear only as extremely small 
dots in a granular matrix. Of circular cuticular muscles no trace can 
be seen, unless the granular matrix just mentioned represents them. 
A definite sub-cuticular lies under the cuticular muscles. It consists 
of elongated, roughly columnar, cells lying at right angles to the surface 
of the body, each with a darkly staining nucleus and granular contents. 
Tangential sections show that their outer faces are polygonal, fitted 
together to form a mosaic : further inwards they separate, leaving 
spaces between them, so that their inner ends do not touch one another. 
Scattered through this sub-cuticular are spherical spaces which possibly 
represent spaces filled in life by calcareous bodies. None have been 
recorded from this species however, and I have been unable to deter¬ 
mine definitely their presence in fresh or preserved material. 
Under the sub-cuticular is a well-developed system of longitudinal 
muscles. These run as isolated brmdles from the scolex to the end of 
the proglottis, each bundle consisting of several fibres. Their course is 
not exactly straight owing to the form of the proglottides. At the 
junction of each proglottis \vith its neighbour they bend inwards, 
sharply bending out again as soon as they reach the next proglottis. 
18—2 
