Miscellaneotis, 317 



pists, the most important part of Prof. Klencke's memoir is that oc- 

 cupied with an account of the experiments which he performed upon 

 propagating hydatids by means of inoculation. Some few of these 

 will be here detailed with the general conclusions to which they lead, 

 with the view not merely of gratifying the reader's curiosity, but it 

 is hoped of stimulating those who have time and opportunity to test 

 their truthfulness for themselves, by methods, however, as consistent 

 as is possible with the feelings of humanity. 



'* In order to study the reproductive power of the false hydatid, I 

 selected two puppies and two kittens, and injected by a trocar into 

 their abdominal cavity warm water containing some of these hyda- 

 tids, which I had collected from the brain of a fresh human subject. 

 After the injection I closed the opening carefully ; the animals did 

 not appear to suffer much from the operation, were restored to their 

 parents and grew perfectly well. At the end of three months I found, 

 upon examining the abdomen in setting out from the punctured 

 wound, an adherence of the parietal layer of the peritonaeum with the 

 epiploon at the seat of puncture, and upon this adhesion as well as 

 upon the internal surface of the peritonaeum, in the neighbourhood of 

 the cicatrix, there existed in both the puppies and in one of the 

 kittens a very great number of false hydatids. In the other kitten, 

 in which no adhesions had taken place, there was no trace of these 

 productions in the neighbourhood of the cicatrix, whilst upon the 

 peritonseal surface of the bladder a mass of false hydatids was found 

 projecting into the abdomen. 



" I took some very small hydatic cellules from the plexus cho- 

 roides of a man, and inoculated with them the orbit of a hen. The 

 inflammation which supervened subsided by the eighth day. At the 

 end of thirteen weeks the whole external wall of the orbit was tu- 

 mefied and the eye pushed inwards. Upon examination after death, 

 the orbit was found filled with a cellular mass containing a very great 

 number of false hydatids. 



" The whole brood of these hydatids was injected into the femoral 

 vein of a kitten. At the end of three weeks the animal became 

 sullen and habitually sleepy. Upon autopsy there was found in 

 the heart, and especially in the right auriculo-ventricular orifice, a 

 fibrinous and gelatinous precipitate containing an innumerable quan- 

 tity of false hydatids." 



The false hydatids are more rare in animals than in man, and their 

 transmission is more easily effected when the species of animal in- 

 oculated is not far removed from that which furnished the parasite. 

 In regard to the Acephalocysts and Echinococci, the author says that 

 he has found the former in the milk of the cow, and floating along 

 with them in the serum of that fluid, the small ovules that are met 

 with in the body of these animals. Both forms of hydatid are met 

 with daily in the flesh and blood of animals, and if the process of 

 cooking does not destroy them, we must run continual risk of con- 

 tagion. With a view of ascertaining next what effect digestion would 

 produce upon them, he instituted the following experiment. 



" I placed some full-grown Echinococci in the gastric juice of a 

 dog and that of a man. At the end of three hours they appeared 



