226 



dew drops in saliva kept at an even and warm temperature. Under snch 

 conditions the increase in their activity was still more surprising, for if it 

 had been great before it was now quite tumultuous. When the husk- 

 affected cattle gave their short husky coughs they undoubtedly scattered 

 the young embryos in immense numbers upon the earth. The embryos were 

 then taken up by the earth worms, and in due course were thrown up by 

 these intermediate hosts in the worm casts, whence they migrated to the 

 blades of grass, and in this way he believed a solution of the question of 

 their life history was arrived at. He thought the animals might be pro- 

 tected by putting salt upon the land, or by keeping them out of the infected 

 pastures. All observations in biology should be verified, and he thought 

 that if this brief summary were placed before those whose time enabled 

 them to follow up the subject, it might lead to some good practical result. 

 He hoped that some one would take the matter up, and complete the obser- 

 vations in the direction which he had thus briefly indicated. 



The President hoped that those who had heard of the systematic way in 

 which Dr. Cobbold had worked at this subject, would be encouraged to go 

 on in the way he had suggested. The matter was one which deserved to 

 be worked out on account of its importance, both from a scientific and an 

 economic point of view. 



Mr. E. T Newton thought it rather singular that whilst the development 

 of the embryo took place only to a limited extent in the earth worm, it 

 should go on so rapidly in a medium in which there seemed to be no nutri- 

 ment. Was there any explanation to be given of this ? 



Dr. Cobbold, in reply to Mr. Newton, said that the same question had 

 occurred to him during his investigations. Some Nematode larvae under- 

 went these changes in mud without passing into the body of any intermediate 

 host at all As to the question of nutriment, he believed they were simply 

 nourished by the water. His only doubt was whether they needed to have 

 gone into the earth worm in order to develop afterwards. This was a point 

 he should be glad to see confirmed. He felt persuaded that the larvae of all 

 the lung worms required to pass through the bodies of earth Avorms or some 

 other intermediate host. Mr. Beaulah had said that he found the certain 

 parasites encysted ; did he make any estimate of the length of those so 

 found ? He asked the question because there was a large Nematode worm 

 which attacked cattle, and which was from four to six inches in length. 

 This was the Strongylus enfescens, Avhose larvae were occasionally found 

 encysted in the lungs of sheep. 



Mr. Beaulah said he had never seen any so long as that. He had found 

 that they would live a long time in water ; he had kept them in water for 

 observation, and it did not seem to drown them. 



In reply to a question by Dr. Cobbold, Mr. Beulah further said that the land 

 most subject to the Filarice was low, damp, rich pasture. In some parts 

 of a field very numerous worm casts occurred. He had noticed that the 

 more worm castp, the more eggs and larva) of Filar ioz along with 

 Infusoria, all of which appeared to be fine feed for the worms. This 

 larva, if such, was a minute white woim, without structure or eggs in it. 



