On the anatomy and physiology of the nematoids, parasitic and free : with observations on their zoological position and affinities to the echinoderms / by H. Charlton Bastian.

  • Henry Charlton Bastian
Date:
[1866]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the anatomy and physiology of the nematoids, parasitic and free : with observations on their zoological position and affinities to the echinoderms / by H. Charlton Bastian. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    / / [ 545 ] XXL On the Anatomy and Physiology of the Neynatoids, Parasitic and Free; with observations on their Zoological Position and Affinities to the Echinoderms. By H. Charlton Bastian, M.A., M.B. Bond., F.L.S. Received June 13,—Read June 15, 1865. CONTENTS. Page Introductory Remarks 545 Tegumentary Organs and Appendages 547 Muscular System 559 Nervous System 565 Organs of Sense 572 Organs of Digestion 573 Glandular System 581 Organs of Circulation—‘ Water-vascular System,’ &c 584 The function of Respiration—hovf performed ? 602 Organs of Generation 604 Development and life-history 606 Powers of repair and tenacity of life 611 Zoological Position and Affinities 620 Although the parasitic Nematoids have been so long known and frequently submitted to anatomical examination, it is somewhat surprising that, even up to within quite a recent period, nothing was certainly known with regard to the arrangement in them of the nervous system, or as to whether they possessed any modification of the organs of circulation. The existence of both these systems has been asserted and denied over and over again by successive observers, and conflicting statements in this particular field of research have been so rife, that a well-known writer*, recently alluding to this subject, even goes so far as to state that the many discrepancies in the accounts given by leading Helminthologists of Nematoid anatomy “ tend to throw great doubt upon the general value of histological observations among the Helminths.” Although far from sharing in this opinion, I must admit that the tangled network of opposing statements is sufficiently disheartening. As a necessary consequence of our deficient knowledge of the real anatomy of these animals, this order Nematoidea has been a continual stumbling-block in the path of the philosophic zoologist. What is their place in the animal kingdom 1 A question, surely, impossible to answer whilst so many doubts hung over the question of the arrangement of their nervous and circulatory organs; and it seems to me that many of the erroneous opinions which have been held concerning these parts may be traced to * Dr. CoBBOLD, ‘ Entozoa: an Introduction to the Study of Helminthology,’ 1864, p. 363.