338 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



These occupied large irregular cavities or cysts, sometimes an 

 inch long, containing a considerable amount of dark colored 

 and disagreeable matter, like pus, in which many eggs were 

 also found. In some of the cavities two or three worms oc- 

 curred together, in others but one. This pig had been dressed 

 and sold in New Haven as sound and healthy. By an exam- 

 ination of these fresh specimens and others I have been able to 

 determine the form and structure of the worm more precisely 

 than could be done with the badly preserved specimens origi- 

 nally described. Soon afterwards I received drawings and 

 specimens of the same parasite from Dr. Wm. B. Fletcher, of 

 Indianapolis, Ind., who had also sent specimens to Dr. Cob- 

 bold, with information concerning its habits. Dr. Cobbold 

 identified the worm with the species described by Diesing* 

 from specimens obtained by Natterer in Brazil in a Chinese 

 variety of the hog. He also published an article on the sub- 

 ject in the British Medical Journal^ and in " Nature,^'' Jan. 

 26, 1871, calling attention to its importance. I have also 

 satisfied myself that this identification is correct, on examina- 

 tion of the perfect specimens referred to above, although 

 Diesing's description does not apply in all respects to the 

 specimens which I have examined. Dr. Cobbold errs, how- 

 ever, in supposing that this species has been entirely over- 

 looked in this country up to this time, for in 1858, Dr. J. C. 

 White t noticed the occurrence of the same worm (which 

 he referred doubtfully to Stephanurus dentatus,') in tlie leaf- 

 lard of a hog. It appears to have been well known to 

 pork producers for a long time under the name of " kidney 

 worm." Dr. Cobbold has published anotlier more lengthy ar- 

 ticle on the same subject in Nature, Oct. 1871, p. 508, in 

 which he translates Diesing's original description and gives 

 interesting facts received from Dr. Fletcher concerning its 

 habits and injurious effects in this country. He also records 

 its discovery in Australian hogs by Dr. Morris. J 



*Systema Helmiathura, Vol. ii, p. 296, 1851. Also in Annalen des Wiener 

 Museums, ii, p. 232, Tab. xv. (anatomy), 1839. 



fProccedings of the Boston Society of Natural Histoiy, Vol. vi, p. 428. 



I Monthly Microscopic Journal, Nov. 1871, p. 243. 



