the Syngamus trachealis. 259 



On the nervous, vascular systems, &c., I can state nothing, 

 nor do I intend to say that my description of this worm can 

 be called complete; this I hope will be pardoned on account 

 of its rarity, which was the reason that 1 could not give a bet- 

 ter description of it. Perhaps I shall be able at a future time 

 to examine it more thoroughly. The main thing was not to 

 keep this remarkable parasite longer from the friends of hel- 

 minthology. It is certain that the same worm may be disco- 

 vered in many other birds, although it is rather curious that 

 three so very different birds as the woodpecker, the swallow, 

 and the hen, should be infested by the same intestinal worm. 

 It belongs therefore to those parasites which are diffused in the 

 same classes of animals, as is the case in Distomum hepaticum, 

 lanceolatum^^ and ovatum\^ &c. That the l^i/ngamus trachealis 

 forms quite a new genus of intestinal worms will be clear to 

 every one. By the name Syngamus I thought to signify the 

 combination of a male and female individual in one animal. 

 The connection of two individuals of different sex is here also 

 combined with the circumstance that both parts remain much 

 more individualized, as each possesses an intestinal canal, 

 while, in Diplozoon^ both androgynal halves have one and 

 the same canal J. 



If we seek a place in the system for Si/ngamus, we find our- 

 selves at a loss, as it comes into none of the five known orders. 

 I am, however, sure that even in a better system there would 

 be a difficulty in placing it, on account of its remarkable pro- 

 perties. If we consider the male and female parts each alone, 

 we find they have a great resemblance in their form and struc- 

 ture to the Nematoidea. The body is protended and cylindri- 

 cal ; the intestine is simple, and possesses a muscular cesopha- 

 gus, which is also protended ; the generative organs have the 

 same appearance as in many of the Nematoidea. The uterus, 

 ovary, &c., are double, as in Ascaris, Spiroptera, Strongylus, 

 and others §. The ovaries are not branched like those of the 



* Some time ago I found the gall-bladder and gall-vessels of the liver in 

 a young cat filled with many hundreds of this Distomum. 



t The Distonmm ovatum, which till at present was known as only inha- 

 biting the bursa Fabricii of the Corviis Comix, frugilegus, Fica, of the Anas 

 cli/peata and Fulica, (see Rudolphi*s Synopsis, p. 93,) I have found in the 

 same organ also of Falco Subbuteo,Corvus glandanus,Corvus Moiiedula, Turdus 

 viscivoruSf Hirundo tirhica. Partis major, Crcx pratensis, Gallinula Porzana, 

 ChloropuSy Una Troile, and Phasianus Gallus. I also found it several times 

 of enormous size even in the white of hen's eggs. The place of this parasite 

 seems to be supplied in sea birds by Holostom. platyccphalum, which Creplin 

 (in Observat. de Entozois, p. 39,) has described at first from Colymbus rufo- 

 gularisy and which I have taken from a doubtful organ of Larm canus, 

 fuscus, Halieus Carbo, Colymbus septentrionalisy and Falco AlbiciUa. 



X Nordmann's Memoirs, I. p. 67. 



§ Trichosoma and Trichocephalus have only a simple uterus and a simple 

 ovarium. 



2L2 



