HELMINTHOLOGY HELMINTHES CYSTIC1. 491 



must be referred to Eckinococcus hominis. In two cases 

 of hydatid formations in the abdominal cavity, which had 

 been observed by Gairdner and Lee, the pathological forms 

 were microscopically examined and described by Goodsir, 

 (The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Oct. 1844, 

 p. ~(59 ; "Cases and Observations illustrating the History and 

 Pathological Relations of two kinds of Ilydatids, hitherto 

 undescribed ; by Gairdner and Lee ; with microscopical 

 observations by Goodsir :" vid. also the Archiv. f. Physiol. 

 and patholog. Chemie imd Microscopic, 1844, Hft. iii, 

 p. 231), who believed that these forms were referable to two 

 new species of Cyst-worms, which he named Diskostoma 

 acephalocystis and Astoma acepkalocystis. From the descrip- 

 tion and figure of the former of these Cyst-worms the 

 Reporter was unable to arrive at any conception of the para- 

 site at all. What Goodsir says with respect to the mem- 

 branes penetrated by numerous tubuli, which are said to 

 form the walls of the vesicular bodies of these Diskostomata, 

 was the most unintelligible to him. It appears, however, 

 as if the whole was nothing more than a large dead Echino- 

 coccus colony. This view, at all events, is supported by the 

 multitude of vesicles, their various size, and their being 

 inclosed one within the other, as well as by the irregularity of 

 their shape and their rupture, caused by compression. The 

 fluid contents of the Echinococcus-vesicles after bursting, 

 together with tbe torn and dissolving membranes, are very 

 frequently converted into a gelatinous mass, which, like a 

 jelly, envelops the remaining and as yet uninjured Echiiio- 

 coccus-vesicles. In the above instance something of this 

 kind may have been the case, in consequence of which the 

 mass in which the vesicular bodies were buried, assumed, 

 after the removal of the latter, a honeycomb appearance. 

 Goodsir does not appear to have observed whether the pecu- 

 liarly formed booklets from the coronet of the young worms 

 were present in the gelatinous mass or not, of which, if only 

 a few had been found, they would have at once thrown light 

 upon the whole nature of this parasite. The circumstance 



