KESEARCHKS IN HELMINTHOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGY. 1 63 



of blood from a cow. The animal, apparently well on Wednesday, 

 May 10, and milked the same evening, died the next morning. The 

 cause was not clear, but was suspected to be the result of anthrax, 

 charbon, or splenic fever. During the past year a number of cows 

 ni the same herd had died in a similar manner in Salem Co., N. J. 

 A post-mortem examination was made the following day, and the 

 abdominal viscera were found much conjested, especially the spleen, 

 which was gorged with blood. The specimen of blood obtained 

 from the spleen was examined the next day, Friday. It teemed 

 with bacteria, the peculiar form. Bacillus anthracis, which is now 

 viewed by most competent authorities as the cause of the frightful 

 affection known as anthrax or splenic fever. The bacilli were 

 actually more numerous than the blood corpuscles, which appeared 

 unchanged. The bacilli were completely motionless, straight, bent, 

 or zigzag filaments ; in the latter condition in pairs or more segments. 

 They measured from 0.006 to 0.042 mm. in length ; usually from 

 0.012 to 0.03 mm. Kept for some days in the blood, the filaments 

 underwent division into little chains in two, three, or more dumb- 

 bells, which measure about 0.005 mm , or into isolated micrococci- 

 like particles about 0.0015 mm. Many, however, of the filaments 

 did not resolve themselves into these minute particles, but appeared 

 only to grow in length and divide into segments of about 0.012 mm. 

 in length. 



[May, 1882. No 496. See Bibliography.] 



O71 Enchytrceics, Distickopiis, and their Parasites. — Prof. Leidy re- 

 marked that occasionally in lifting a flower-pot, or in stirring the 

 earth within, attention is sometimes attracted by the sudden wrig- 

 gling of a little white worm disturbed from its rest. In the Archiv 

 fur Anatomic, 1837, Henle has given an elaborate description of the 

 worm, and named it Enchytrcsus in reference to its familiar habita- 

 tion. The little pot worm is common in our vicinity, especiall^^ in 

 damp forests under decaying leaves and timber. It was first noticed 

 in 1773 from Denmark by O. E. Muller, and in 1880 from Green- 

 land by Fabricius. It has also been observed in France and Ger- 

 many, and therefore the little worm appears to extend over the 

 northern parts of Europe and America. 



The same worm I have found in the meadows of Atlantic City, New 

 Jersey, in the usual haunts of Melampus bidcntatiis and Orchcstia 

 agilis. In mature specimens, about three-fourths of an inch in 

 length, the girdle is well produced, and the body has ten setigerous 

 segments in advance of it and about forty-five behind it. The short- 



