It is only within the last half-dozen years that any serious attempt has been made to deal systematically with the parasitic worms of Australia. In 1909 Dr T. Harvey Johnston commenced what has proved to be a most extensive and successful survey of the cestode parasites. Dealing at first chiefly with Southern forms, he has latterly (1912) continued his investigations in Queensland and has extended them to include Nematodes and Echinorhynchs. Some years previously (1901) Dr S. J. Johnston of Sydney had started a study of the Trematode parasites, but this did not lead to any outstanding results until last year, when his important paper on the Trematode parasites of Australian frogs appeared. He has followed this up by another important work on Trematodes from North Queensland, which has appeared during the present year.

Two very curious cases of pseudo-parasitism have recently come before my notice :—

Towards the middle of last year some centipedes were forwarded to me which had been vomited and passed by a women of 68 years of age. Some of the centipedes emerged through the patient's nose, and it must be mentioned that she was also suffering from a round worm. One of her doctors was of opinion that the centipedes were certainly breeding inside the lady's intestine, and as many as seven or eight, sometimes more, were daily leaving the alimentary canal.

The present investigation was primarily undertaken by Mr G. Merriman at the suggestion of Professor Nuttall, but was discontinued at a very early stage owing to Mr Merriman's departure for Africa. The object of the investigation was:

(1) To determine if immature stages of ticks whose mouth-parts have been mutilated or torn off by the forcible removal of the parasite from the host possess the power of regeneration. In nature, many immature ticks must be injured in this manner, and it seemed of interest to determine if they could regenerate the lost parts, thus helping them in the struggle for existence.

(2) To determine if the small legs occasionally observed in nymphal and adult ticks are due to mechanical injury followed by regeneration. A very striking example of such a tick is the type specimen of Amblyomma scaevola Oudemanns (♂), in which four legs are markedly under-developed. In the large quantity of tick material that has been received at the Quick Laboratory, individuals with one or more miniature legs have been observed repeatedly.

Prof. Nuttall has suggested that I should continue his investigations (1913) on variation in size and structure due to nutrition, using other species of Rhipicephalus and species of other genera.

In November 1912, through the courtesy of Mr S. W. J. Scholefield, Prof. Nuttall received fourteen living nymphs of Argas brumpti from Kitui, British East Africa. As only the adults and later stage nymphs of this species are known, an attempt was made to raise the species in the laboratory.

The muscular system is so highly developed in the Ixodoidea, that it is no matter of surprise that it has been the subject of more or less detailed treatment in most of the publications dealing with tick anatomy; but, with a single exception, the existing descriptions do not extend beyond a general classification of the various muscles, with the addition of brief remarks, in some instances, on the histological structure of the muscle fibres. In the majority of cases, also, the observations only apply to the Ixodid ticks, and although the general arrangement of the musculature in the two families of the Ixodoidea is not fundamentally different, the comparative anatomy of the muscles offers some difficulty, owing to the great morphological differences which the two families present.