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On Parasites, Animal and Vegetable, occurring in Living Be* 

 ings ; and especially of a Cryptogamous Plant grorving in the 

 Air-Ceils of an Eider-Duckf and destroying it. 



The subject of parasites, animal and vegetable, occurring 

 in living beings, including man himself, has lately attracted 

 much attention on the continent of Europe, and is so highly 

 curious and important, that we must, in a few words, bring it 

 under the notice of our readers. The vast extent of the sub- 

 ject may be learned by a glance at M. Eschricht's memoir, on 

 a previous page, where the author states that the Fauna Pa- 

 rasitica alone surpasses in amount all the other fauna put to- 

 gether ; and its interest and deep importance may be esti- 

 mated by endeavouring to trace the origin and effects of these 

 parasites : — as of the Fllaria in the aqueous and other humours 

 of the eye of horses, and of man ; — of the Strongylus injtexi, 

 nestling in the lungs, and there producing pulmonary con- 

 sumption, in the porpoise ; — of th^ Distoma hepatlcum, so de- 

 structive in the rot ; and the Cvenurus cerebralis in the sturdy 

 or gid of sheep. With regard to vegetable parasites, science 

 has been much indebted to the laborious investigations of M. 

 Audouin, who has presented two memoirs to the French Aca- 

 demy of Sciences, concerning the Miiscardine,-^a. scourge 

 which attacks the silk- worm, and creates the most serious 

 alarm among those interested in this trade. Attention was 

 first directed to this point by the discovery, in 1835, of M* 

 Bassi of Lodi, and of his fellow-countryman M. Balsamo, a 

 botanist of Milan, of the vegetable nature of that whitish mat- 

 ter which covers the dead body of Bomhyx mori at the termi- 

 nation of the malady above referred to, and which has long 

 been known. M. Bassi, being desirous to obtain the opinion of 

 M. Audouin on the matter, sent him a chrysalis of a silk-worm 

 which had been destroyed by the muscardine. During the 

 years 1836 and 1837, the French physiologist made numerous 

 researches into the history of this plague, and proceeded in de- 

 veloping, in an anatomical, physiological, and pathological 

 point of view, all the phenomena which occur in the invasion, 

 progress, and termination of the disease. He also followed 



