ZOOLOGY. 323 



let them remain, or convey them into a cesspool, and nolurm follows. 

 If deemed preferable, you may transport them, along with myriads of 

 other human parasite eggs and larva? into a common sew<-r, and thence 

 into the sea; still entozoologically speaking, no harm follows. Here, 

 however, let me invite you to pause; for if, without due consideration, 

 yon adopt any one of the gigantic schemes now in vogue, you will 

 scatter these eggs far and wide ; you will spread them over thousands 

 of acres of ground ; you will place the larvae in those conditions which 

 are known to be eminently favorable for the development of their next 

 stage of growth; you will bring the latter in contact with land and 

 water snails, into whose bodies they will speedily penetrate ; and in 

 short, you will place them in situations where their yet higher grada- 

 tions of non-sexual growth and propagation will be arrived at. After 

 all these changes, there is every reason to believe that they will expe- 

 rience no greater difficulty in gaining access to our bodies here in 

 England than obtains in the case of those same parasites attacking our 

 fellow-creatures, whose residence is found in Egypt, in Natal, in the 

 Mauritius, or at the Cape. In a natural history point of view, it would 

 not be an altogether singular result if, 20 years hence, this parasitic 

 malady should be as prevalent in this country as it is now known to be 

 in particular sections of the African continent. Foreseeing the possi- 

 bility, not to say probability, of this contingency, am I not right, 

 after years of long study, to raise my voice in the hope of preventing 

 such a disaster ? " 



ON THE INDUCED PRODUCTION OF SUGAR IN ANIMALS BY COLD. 



At a recent meeting of the Royal Society (London), Dr. Bence 

 Jones, the eminent physiologist, read a curious paper, detailing 

 the production of sugar in the fluids of the animal body by extreme 

 cold, attributing its formation to deficient oxydation of the carbona- 

 ceous articles of food. For example, a grain of starch enters into 

 the body, and is transformed into sugar; it is then acted on by oxy- 

 gen, and ultimately passes out as carbonic acid and water. This is 

 the final result of the perfect combustion ; but if the oxydation stops 

 at any stage, imperfect combustion occurs. 



The combustion may be made imperfect in at least three different 

 ways. First, by insufficient oxygen ; secondly, by overwhelming fuel ; 

 thirdly, by reducing the temperature so low that chemical action is 

 checked. From each of these causes the following scale of the com- 

 bustion of starch in the body may be formed : When there is perfect 

 combustion, then carbonic acid and water are produced. With less per- 

 fect combustion oxalic and other vegetable acids are formed. With the 

 least possible combustion sugar results. Between perfect combustion 

 and the most imperfect combustion, that is, between carbonic acid 

 and sugar, there are probably many steps formed by many different 

 acids ; and as in a furnace one portion of the coal may be fully burnt, 

 whilst other portions are passing through much less perfect combus- 

 tion or are not burnt at all, so different portions of starch may reach 

 different steps in the scale of combustion, and sugar, acetic acid, 

 oxalic acid, carbonic acid, and many other acids between acetic and 

 oxalic acid, may be simultaneously produced. From this account of 

 the oxydation of starch, it follows that sugar should always be found 



