G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 337 



that of the spider. The vegetable-feeding forms ( Chilogna- 

 thes) are not poisonous. The process of digestion is carried 

 on in the same general manner as in insects, the organs being 

 constructed on the same plan. Plateau finds that, as in in- 

 sects, the digestive liquid of Myriapods has no analogy with 

 the gastric juice of vertebrates (its acidity in lulus excepted). 

 It does not curdle milk, emulsionate fat, nor in the carnivorous 

 Myriapods clearly dissolve albuminoid matters. The ma- 

 terial dissolved, salts, sugar (?), substances analogous to pep- 

 tones, and emulsioned fats, pass by osmose directly through 

 the thill walls of the stomach (there being no lacteals as in 

 vertebrates), the surface of which is generally enormous in 

 proportion to the size of the animal, and mixes Avith the blood 

 in order to be assimilated. Plateau uses the term " salivary 

 glands" for the glands in Lithobius and Himantariwu which 

 empty their contents into the mouth, but the fluid secreted 

 by them is not like that of other insects and the vertebrate 

 animals, which has the property of transforming starch into 

 sugar, but in the two genera of Thousand-legs mentioned the 

 fluid is colorless, neutral, or distinctly alkaline; nor is it poi- 

 sonous. 3Iemoires Acad. Boy. Sc. Belgique^ 1876. 



THE LARGE HUMAN FLUKE-W^ORM. 



Dr. Cobbold thus puts in a pithy way the liability we un- 

 dergo of becoming infested by parasitic worms : " Imitate 

 the Cossacks, Burates, and Abyssinians in their fondness for 

 raw meat, and you will be invaded by Tcienim; or imitate the 

 very similar habits of North Greenlanders in respect offish, 

 and you will probably enjoy the privilege of entertaining 

 Bothriocephali. If you have a predilection for unfiltered wa- 

 er, you are likely, sooner or later, to play the role of host to 

 some highly irritating nematode guest ; or, as frequently 

 happens in Iceland and Australia, you will be particuhirly 

 likely to contract the so-called JEchinococcus disorder." He 

 thinks that it remains to be proved that shell-fish are alto- 

 gether unconcerned in the matter of human helminthism, yet 

 he believes that danger from this source is limited to certain 

 molhisca living in eastern waters. About thirty years ago 

 Professor Busk discovered fourteen large flukes in the duo- 

 denum of a Lascar. This was described under the name of 

 Distoyna crassum, and it was not again met with until 1874, 



P 



