1 8 RESEARCHES IN HELMINTHOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGY. 



But it must not be understood that these facts militate against 

 the hj'pothesis of the production of contagious diseases through the 

 agency of cryptogamia. It is well established that there are micro- 

 scopic cryptogamia capable of producing and transmitting disease, 

 as in the case of the Muscardine, &c., as that there are innocuous 

 and poisonous fungi. But to suppose that they are the sole cause 

 of contagious disease is to doubt the possibility of other causes, 

 such as change in the chemical constitution of the atmosphere, the 

 elements of our food, &c., and is as ridiculous as the psoric origin 

 of most diseases of that miserable charlatanry denominated homoeop- 

 athy. In many instances it is difficult to distinguish their character 

 whether as cause or effect, as upon diseased surfaces, in Tinea capi- 

 tis, apthous ulcers, &c. In a post-mortem examination, in which 

 I assisted Dr. Horner, a few weeks since, 28 hours after death, in 

 moderately cool weather, we found the stomach in a much softened 

 condition. In the mucus of the stomach, I detected myriads of 

 nnxodermatoid filaments, resembling those growing upon the teeth; 

 simple, floating, inarticulate, and measuring from i -7000th to i -520th 

 of an inch in length by i -25,000th of an inch in breadth. It is 

 possible that they may have been the cause of the softened condi- 

 tion ; but I would prefer thinking that swallowed mycodermatoid 

 filaments from the teeth, finding an excellent nidus in the softening 

 stomach, rapidly grew and reproduced themselves. In the healthy 

 human stomach these do not exist. 



In the stomach of a diabetic patient, I found so very few that they 

 probably did not grow there, but were swallowed in the saliva. 



Dr. Leidy, after exhibiting numerous drawings of the entophyta 

 described by him, and also specimens, beneath the microscope, grow- 

 ing from the mucous membrane of the small intestine y«/«5, and from 

 the exterior surface of entozoa infesting that cavity, proceeded to 

 exhibit and describe some new genera and species of entozoa, as 

 follows : 



I. Ascaris cylindrica. — Body nearly cylindrical throughout, ante- 

 teriorly moderately attenuated ; tail curved, 1.2 14 of an inch in 

 length from the anus, oesophagus elongated, gibbous in the middle, 

 with the oesophageal bulb and pharynx i-iooth of an inch in length ; 

 oesophageal bulb pyriform, i-75th of an inch in diameter ; ventricle 

 or intestine somewhat tortuous, cylindrical, dilated at both extremi- 

 ties ; rectum pyriform ; female generative aperture about half way 

 between the mouth and tail. Whole length 4-5th of a line, breadth 

 I- 1 2th of a line. 



Habitat. — Small intestine of Helix alternata. 



