A guide to the shell and starfish galleries : $b (Mollusca, Polyzoa, Brachiopoda, Tunicata, Echinoderma, and Worms)British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology
Science
A guide to the shell and starfish galleries : $b (Mollusca, Polyzoa, Brachiopoda, Tunicata, Echinoderma, and Worms)
British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology
Echinodermata; Mollusks; Worms
Fig. 13. Free-swimming _Cercaria_, before the commencement of the
formation of the cyst. Magnified 100 diams.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 14. Diagram of the structure of a Turbellarian: _ng_, nerve-
(cerebral) ganglia; _nb_, nerve-branches; _yg_, yolk-glands; _t_,
testis; _o_, ova; _ov_, ovary; _c_, cirrus; _m_, mouth; _ph_,
pharynx.
Fig. 15. Diagram of a Nemertine: _b_, brain; _m_, mouth; _n_, renal
organs; _id_, diverticula of intestine; _g_, gonads; _sn_, side
nerve-trunk; _pr_, proboscis in its dorsal sheath.
Fig. 16. Diagram of the structure of a Nematoid; _m_, mouth; _ph_,
pharynx; _a_, anus; _o_, orifice of genital tube.
]
NEMATODES (Thread-Worms or Round-Worms).—These are for the most part
parasitic, and infest plants as well as animals; the common Round-Worms
living parasitically in man (_Ascaris_, _Stronaylus_, _Trichocephalus_)
belong to this Order. Sometimes they are parasitic in their early stages
and later live a free life—such are _Gordius_ and _Mermis_. A specimen
of a Mantid is exhibited from which half the body of the infesting
_Gordius_ has already protruded (Fig. 17). One of the most remarkable
_Gordii_ is the great elongated _G. fulgur_, or “Lightning Snake,” from
Celebes. Another very large Nematode is the so-called Guinea-worm, or
_Dracunculus medinensis_, which is found beneath the skin of the leg; it
is very possible that this worm was the cause of the illness which
afflicted the Israelites in their journey through the desert from Egypt
to the Promised Land.
[Illustration:
Fig. 17.
_Gordius_ escaping from a Mantid.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 18.
Figure of _Trichina spiralis_, showing the worms encysted in muscle.
]
Of all Nematodes the most dangerous to man is the small worm which is
known as _Trichina spiralis_ (Fig. 18); a series of models are shown
which give a good idea of the structure of the female and the smaller
male. The young make their way through the walls of the stomach of their
host, and encyst themselves among its muscles: a piece of a
sternothyroid muscle is shown, taken from a man in whose body it was
calculated there were forty millions of encysted _Trichinæ_.
Other Nematodes infesting man, such as _Filaria sanguinis hominis_, are
too small for exhibition.
Plants are not free from the attacks of Nematodes, and examples are
shown, accompanied by an illustrating figure, of the Ear-cockle gall of
wheat; this gall is due to the injuries inflicted by a minute
Thread-worm—_Tylenchus tritici_. Wheat is, of course, by no means the
only cultivated plant that is attacked by these minute worms; the
history of most has, however, still to be made out.
Holding a somewhat uncertain position in relation to the Round-worms are
the parasitic _Acanthocephali_ (Thorn-headed Worms) and the
free-swimming _Chætognatha_, or Bristle-jawed Worms; examples of both of
these groups are shown, together with diagrams illustrative of their
general structure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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