OF HYDATIDS. 9.61 



contained in hydatids, is generally transparent and 

 colourless, is to the taste slightly salt, and, in some 

 instances, a part of it is coagulated by heat, or by 

 the addition of acids, or ardent spirits. 



*^ In some cases, the contents of the cyst are 

 tinged with yellow, which is probably owing to an 

 admixture of bile, exuding after death ; for the 

 yellow colour is observed only in hydatids which 

 are connected with the liver and gall-bladder. 

 There are also tumours, the contents of which seem 

 to be coagulable lymph, and a number of hydatids 

 which have burst, and the coats of these are shrunk 

 and inverted. There is a seventh kind of hydatids, 

 with narrow necks, which is frequently attached to 

 the placenta. I have also seen hydatids of the sec- 

 ond species, connected with the placenta. 



" Some of the bowels, as the ovaria and kidneys, 

 are said at times to have been converted into hyda- 

 tids, but it would be more accurate to speak of the 

 conversion of these bowels into watery vesicles ; (the 

 genuine hydatid being rarely found within these 

 bowels ;) and these vesicles have only one coat, they 

 are not inclosed within firm cysts, and do not pro- 

 duce their like, nor do they possess any degree of 

 contractile power, like the genuine hydatid." 



ail inch in diameter, and the smallest being less than a red glo- 

 bule of the blood. See Trans, for the improvement of Med. and 

 Chiriirg. Knowledge, xoL i. p, 38, 



