2* 



bers, as the species about to be described. The museles of bodies 

 dissected at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital had been more than once 

 noticedby Mr. Wormald, the Demonstrator of Anatomy at that esta- 

 blishment, to be beset with minute ■whitish specks ; and this appear- 

 ance having been again remarked in that of an Italian, aged 45, by 

 Mr. Paget, a studeut of the hospital, who suspected it to be produced 

 by minute Entozoa, the suspicion was found to be correct, and 

 Mr. Owen was furnished with portions of the museles, on -vvhich he 

 made the following obser\'ations. 



With a lens of an inch. f ocus the white specks are at once seen to 

 be cysts of an elliptical figure, with the extremities in general atte- 

 nuated, elongated, and more opake than the body (or intermediate 

 part) of the cyst, which is sufhciently transparent to show that it con- 

 tains a. minute coiled-up worm. On separating the muscular fasci- 

 culi, the cysts are found to adhere to the surrounding cellular sub- 

 stance by the Avhole of their external surface, somewhat laxly at the 

 middle dilated part, but more strongly by means of their elongated 

 extremities. When placed on a micrometer, they measure xVth of an 

 inch in their longitudinal and -ri-Trth of an inch in their transverse di- 

 ameter, a few being somewhat larger, and others diminishing in size 

 to about one half of the above dimensions. They are generally placed 

 in single rows, parallel to the muscular fibres, at distances varying 

 from į a line to a line apart ; but sometimes a larger and a smaller 

 cyst are seen attached together by one of their extremities, and they 

 are occasionally observed slightly overlapping each other. 



If a thin portion of musele be dried and placed in Canada balsam, 

 betvveen a plate of giass and a plate of talc, the cysts become more 

 transparent, and allow of the contained worm being more plainly seen. 

 Under a lens of the f ocus of ^ an inch, the w'orm appears to occupy 

 a circumscribed space of a less elongated and more regularly ellipti- 

 cal form than the extemal cyst, as if ■vvithin a smaller cyst contained 

 in the larger : it does not occupy more than a third part of the inner 

 space. A few of the cysts have been seen to contain two distinct 

 vorms ; and Mr. Farr, who has paid much attention to the subject, 

 exhibited a drawing of one of the cysts from this subject, containing 

 three distinct worms, all of nearly equal size. Occasionally the tip 

 of one of the extremities of the cyst is observed to be dilated and 

 transparent, as though a portion of the larger cyst were about to be 

 separated by a process of gemmation ; and these small attached cysts 

 are seen of difFerent sizes, and, as it were, in difFerent stages of growth. 

 This appearance, however, Mr. Owen conceives to be explicable with- 

 out a reference of a power of independent vitality to either of the 

 adherent cysts. The cysts are composed of condensed and compacted 

 lamella of cellular tissue ; but a few are hardened by the deposition 

 of some earthy salt, so as to resist the knife and to produce a gritty 

 sensation when broken under pressure. 



When removed from the interior of the cyst, which, on account of 

 the minuteness of the object, is a matter of some difficulty, the worm 

 is usually found to be disposed in two or two and a half spirai coils. 

 When straightened it measures from i;Vth to Vo^th of an inch in length. 



