274 
Amoehotaenia splienoides 
adiilte. Quand ils sont murs, ils ont fait eclater les vesicules en question 
et sont dissemines dans toute I’entendue de I’anneau ; cela s’observe 
notamment a partir du douzieme anneau et sur les anneaux isoles par 
rupture spontanee.” Of the “ 13 a 15 grosses vesicules ou cavites ” in 
question I can find no trace : the persistent testes are the only organs 
present airswering to this description. 
The uterus makes its first appearance in the 12th segment as a small 
bag against the anterior border, slightly to one side of the middle line. 
It rapidly develops, displacing the ovary in the following segment and 
masking it in the 14th. By approximately the 16th segment it extends 
as far as the lateral border of the proglottis, overlapping the excretory 
canals : previous to this, the lateral quarter of each proglottis consists 
of parenchyma. Here the uterus changes its form ; previously it has 
the form of an elongated sac ; it now sends out finger-like outgrowths 
posteriorly (PI. XX, fig. 8), which in the following segments increase in 
size, reaching the posterior border of the proglottis. The eggs are closely 
packed together in the uterus so that their shape owing to compression 
IS generally polygonal. In the 19th segment the outer growths have 
apparently anastomosed with one another so that the whole proglottis 
is now merely a huge sac filled with eggs, and for the first time these 
conform to the characteristic Cestode tyjae of an onchosphere within a 
thin and translucent envelope. 
The mature proglottis is merely a pouch of eggs when detached from 
the strobilus. In sections it may be seen that the eggs are not enclosed 
in any definite wall, but are in a large bunch occupying the centre of 
the segment and surrounded by a ragged irregular parenchymatous 
border. The uterus at its first commencement is a definite organ with 
well-defined walls. It is evident, therefore, that somewhere between 
the 12th and 19th segments a change must have occurred, the uterine 
wall must have burst and the eggs have invaded the parenchyma, 
pushing back the latter as they increase in size until it became a mere 
shell enclosing the eggs. This change occurs in the 19th segment. 
Previous to that the eggs are polygonal, showing compression, the 
uterus has a definite shape and does not fill the whole proglottis : subse¬ 
quent to and including the 19th proglottis, the eggs become spherical and 
are scattered through the proglottis, and the uterus apparently loses 
its shape. In one whole mount, by a lucky accident, I could actually 
see the wall in the 18th segment; while in the 19th it was obvious that 
no wall could be present. The whole change is probably due to the 
pressure caused by the growth of the eggs. 
