4G8 REPORT ON /OOLOGY, MDCCCXLTY. 



A case of Distomum hepaticum, in the portal vein of a 

 man (a thatcher by trade), has been communicated by 

 Duval. Froriep's neue Notiz. Nr. 529, p. 9, or Nr. 770, 

 p. 352.) [In the month of November, 1843, the Translator 

 met with several Distomata of a large size (li to f of an 

 inch) in the upper part of the jejunum of a Lascar sailor who 

 had recently arrived from India. These worms were very 

 unlike the Distoma hepaticum in outward appearance, being 

 very much thicker and firmer, and quite opaque. The 

 arrangement of the internal canals could not be seen by 

 simple inspection, but they were readily injected through 

 the oral aperture, with mercury, and also with size and ver- 

 milion, and then exhibited the disposition of vessels pre- 

 sented by the Distoma lanceolatum of Mehlis, as figured in 

 his beautiful Monograph. These worms would, therefore, 

 but for the enormous difference in their size, appear to 

 belong to that species. They were at all events not speci- 

 mens of Distoma hepaticum, and they occurred only in the 

 above-mentioned part of the intestine, the liver and biliary 

 passages exhibiting no mark of disease. A short notice and 

 a figure of the injected worm are given in Dr. Budd's work 

 on Diseases of the Liver, p. 399.] 



From a notice by Pluskal, in Lomnitz (Oesterreich. 

 mediz. Wochenschrift, 1841, p. 36) an epizootic disease 

 followed the severe winter of 1841-2, consisting in a putrid 

 softening and suppuration of the thoracic and abdominal 

 viscera, and which killed a large quantity of forest game. 

 On dissection of a Roebuck dead of this disease there were 

 found, in thick-walled cysts in the liver, one the size of a 

 hazel-nut and the other of that of a pigeon's egg, in the 

 one five, and in the other, thirteen individuals of Distomum 

 hepaticum, without any outlets from the cysts being percep- 

 tible. What Klencke communicates with respect to the 

 habitat of the Liver-Fluke, sounds very strange : for he savs 



f 



that he has met with these parasites not only in the liver of 

 the sheep, but also in the spinal marrow, in various glands 

 of that animal, in the mammary glands and thymus. 



