The carbohydrate constituents of whole eggs and fractions derived from the eggs of Hymenolepis diminuta were partly characterized. Whole eggs contained 9·6 ng of carbohydrate (phenol-sulphuric acid-positive material) per egg, and 3·6 ng of glucose. Analysis of hydrolysed eggs by HPLC demonstrated the presence of glucose, galactose, glycerol, N-acetylgalactosamine, and 2-deoxyribose. Isolated egg shells and the KOH-stable, ethanol-precipitable fraction (putative glycogen) of eggs contained 26 and 76%, respectively, of the total carbohydrate associated with eggs. Glucose and galactose were present in both of these samples, but only glucose was present in the KOH-stable, ethanol-precipitable fraction isolated from chemically deshelled eggs; thus, the source of the galactose in the KOH-stable, ethanol-precipitable fraction isolated from whole eggs was the egg-shells. These data confirm earlier reports that the shells contain carbohydrate; the data demonstrate further that only two monosaccharides (glucose and galactose) are present in the shells, and that they are present as high molecular weight polymers. The ethanol-soluble fraction of eggs contained 2·5% of the total carbohydrate in eggs, and glucose accounted for < 1% of the ethanol-soluble carbohydrate. Analysis of the ethanol-soluble fraction by HPLC demonstrated that the predominant monosaccharides were glycerol and mannose, with smaller quantities of 2-deoxyribose and 2-deoxyglucose. The absence of a ‘free pool’ of glucose in eggs, and the presence of large amounts of glycerol and mannose, suggest that the pathways of intermediary carbohydrate metabolism in eggs might be very different from those in adult tapeworms.

some hundred and ten years ago, Dr Gotthelf Fischer, in a communication dated from Vienna, described a Nematode living in the swim-bladder of the trout. He named this worm Cystidicola farionis and his description is accompanied by some rough cuts. Bosc (1802) re-described the same Nematode under the name Fissula farionis. The same worm was again described by Rudolphi (1819) under the name Spiroptera cystidicola. Dujardin (1845) mentions it under the name Dispharagus cystidicola. Later it was removed by Schneider (1860) from the genus Spiroptera and placed in Diesing's genus Ancyracanthus. von Linstow uses this generic name “with a difference”; he spells it Ancryacanthus.

A comparison of the descriptions of the morphological characteristics of Filaria loa by previous authors shows differences which are explained by the study of our uninjured specimens. We have prepared a table (q.v.) which shows the results of the work of various observers together with our own. We believe that most of the drawings so far published are somewhat misleading; we have, therefore, drawn the essential parts as seen through the microscope with an entire diameter and a portion of a longitudinal section in focus. The drawings are not composite or schematic but have been made on a large scale with accuracy in the measurements so as to represent the different parts in proper proportion (see Plate).

N. A. Cholodkovsky was born on the 4th of March 1858 at Irkutsk, Siberia, where his father was a physician. He attended school in St Petersburg (now Leningrad) and at the age of 17 entered the Academy of Medicine. After completing his medical education, having no inclination for practice, he joined the University and in 1885 obtained the lectureship of Zoology in the Institute of Forestry.

The following brief survey considers various manoeuvres which can be applied to manipulate the immune response to parasitic infections in vivo. The examples quoted largely concern malaria, babesiosis, schistosomiasis and leishmaniasis, predominantly in inbred mouse strains. Since my own relevant research experience has been restricted to leishmaniasis, this will receive undue emphasis, although it does illustrate particularly well points I wish to stress. The types of intervention described do not all provide the precision of interpretation with which they are sometimes credited. Thus, effects of immunosuppression or T-cell depletion alone can usually only implicate the specific immune response (in its broad sense) in shaping the natural history and outcome of an infection or in underlying the effect of prophylactic immunization. Nevertheless, more precise delineation of lymphocyte subset involvement can be obtained by cell replacement studies in some of these models or by exclusion of antibody. The outcomes of these approaches have been (or are) predictable in most cases. More fascinating, however, are the various instances which will be stressed where totally unpredicted and contrary observations have been made which led (or may lead) to fresh insight into the disease. These serendipitous findings illustrate at the same time the value of applying the manoeuvres, even though they imply that the logical immunologist cannot yet always outsmart the parasite by design.

Cotugnia columbae sp.nov. from the domestic pigeon is described and compared with other species of the genus. The tapeworm measures 108–130 mm in length and 2·236 mm in maximum breadth. The rostellum bears 200 hooks, 7·7–10·6 μm. long arranged in two rows. Testes number 105–130 and the cirrus pouch measures 0·354–0·376 x 0·054–0·065 mm.

We are grateful to Dr C. M. Singh, Director, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, and to Dr H. D. Srivastava, erstwhile Assistant Director and Head of the Division of Parasitology, for their interest in these studies and for the provision of the necesssary facilities.

Habitat and Record. Two specimens, ♀, were taken on Mustelus vulgaris ♂, the smooth hound, captured at Plymouth in August 1918. They were attached in the angle between the host's body and the pelvic fin and slightly to the left. [This location is unfortunate since the length of the attaching “arms” (2nd maxillae) I have endeavoured elsewhere to show, is a variable character not to be depended upon for the determination of species; for it is my experience that Lernaeopoda spp. have arms very short in this location.]

When egg-masses of Lucilia illustris, taken from carcasses, were mounted on the body of living vertebrates (Clarius batrachus, Bufo melanostictus, Rana tigrina, Hemidactylus fluviviridis, Columba livia and Suncus murinus), the larvae hatched in the majority of cases under normal conditions of room temperature, and entered into the body of the experimental hosts, ultimately killing them. It appeared that the larvae fed on the brain first before turning their attention to other soft tissues of the hosts. The specimens fed on living tissue had a shorter period of development than those bred on dead animals and the period of development was shortest when the host was a living warm-blooded animal.

Thanks are due to Mr H. Oldroyd of the British Museum of Natural History, London, for kindly identifying the fly. The authors also wish to thank Dr T. N. Ghosh of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, who helped with literature; and Dr S. K. Das Gupta, of the Darjeeling Government College, who helped with suggestions at the time of preparing the manuscript.

In response to my request for specimens of blood from Lepidosiren paradoxa, Dr G. S. Carter and Mr L. C. Beadle very kindly made a large number of dried films from 34 fish caught between the dates Sept. 25th, 1926, and May 24th, 1927. These fish were caught in the same locality in the Gran Chaco from which came the infected specimen of my former note (Jepps, 1927), on the parasite which I called Haemogregarina lepidosirenis.

The unusual occurrence of an infestation of Fimbriaria fasciolaris in the proventriculus of a swan is recorded.

The worms were associated with the presence of bipolar staining bacteria and ulcer formation near the site of their attachment.

On 9. 1. 1928, Mrs R. A. Neuman of Ransomville, N.Y., sent me a tick for identification, stating that it was a kind of “bug” with which she was not familiar and that it was occasionally found on the walls of her home. She collected in all about six specimens, but sent me only one, which proved to be an Ornithodorus talaje (Guérin-Méneville), my identification having been since confirmed by Professor Nuttall and Mr Warburton.

1. The nematode Rhabditis pellio Bütschli may be cultured indefinitely on earthworm extract.

2. Although the females of this nematode are usually capable of parthenogenetic reproduction, males are produced in the offspring only if copulation has taken place.

3. Occasionally non-parthenogenetic generations appear but these do not represent a separate species.

4. An explanation is given for the sex ratio found under natural conditions and it is suggested that sex-determination works on a chromosomal arrangement of XO = male and XX = female.

5. The nematode named R. terrestris Stephenson 1942 is probably the same as that named R. pellio Bütschli by Johnson 1913.

6. The nomenclature of R. pellio Bütschli is discussed.

Three new parasitic mites—a fur mite, a mange mite, and a nasal mite—were recovered recently on dissolving the head of a specimen of Hystrix africaeaustralis Peters, the South African porcupine, in a solution of potassium hydroxide. The fur mite is being studied by Dr R. F. Lawrence of the Natal Museum. The other two species, the mange mite, belonging to the genus Psorergates Tyrrell, and the nasal mite, belonging to the genus Rhinophaga Fain, are described below.

The growing importance of the silver black fox industry in Canada, and latterly in other countries, has been so marked, that scientific workers have turned their attention to a study of the maladies affecting this species of fox.