48 THE RABBIT 



appear to be less known in England than on the Con- 

 tinent. 



Rabbits are also liable to be affected with large 

 hydatids, or watery tumours, which usually appear on 

 the hind quarters. These indicate the early stage of 

 a tape-worm, which is matured in the intestinal canal 

 of the dog. Fortunately this does not affect the 

 human species, so that when gamekeepers puncture 

 such tumours, and send the rabbits to market, there 

 is no danger to be apprehended by the consumer. 

 Should, however, a rabbit thus affected be eaten, or 

 partly eaten, by a dog, the germ will develop into a 

 mature tape-worm, w^hose eggs, when perfect, are voided 

 by the dog, and swallowed on the herbage eaten by 

 rabbits. They then produce, not tape-worms, but the 

 original hydatid, which again gives rise to a repetition 

 of this series of changes. 



The researches of the late Dr. Spencer Cobbold, 

 and other helminthologists, have demonstrated the 

 curious fact that tape- worms and other entozoa found 

 in the intestines of men and animals, pass the early 

 stages of their existence in a larval form in the flesh 

 of animals on which man feeds ; and, seeing how in- 

 strumental a dog may become in spreading disease of 

 this kind, it is obviously of importance to prevent use- 

 less curs from wandering about the fields and coverts, 



