cases were tni(;ed to their source and found to l)e utterly witliout foun- 

 dation. P'roni Tennessee came a report of the death in one town of a 

 man, woman, and six children. In portions of the same and in other 

 States, persons were stated to have been taken ill with pain and vomit- 

 ing after having eaten cabbage on which the worms were subsequently 

 found. Possibl}' the consumers had l)een seiz(Ml with temporary hys- 

 teria, imagining that they had unconscioush' eaten many individuals, 

 hence the symptoms. Others were reported severel3' poisoned or dead. 

 In most cases exact localities were furnished, but names were wanting. 

 In some cases domestic animals were said to have been poisoned ; in 

 others cabbage was fed to them without any ill results. 



The death of a man and wife and their four children in an Illinois 

 town after eating snake-worm infested cabbage was reported in several 

 newspapers and the familj' name mentioned : 



The entire family of six ate the cabbage at supper and died during the night. 

 A cabbage in the garden was examined and found to contain worms the size of 

 a thread, 8 or 10 inches long and about the color of tlie cabbage. The cabbage 

 was cut up and fed to animals, and all died. Farmers are destroying all their 

 cabbage. Three persons in the neighborhood have recently died after eating 

 cabbage. 



In response to inquir}' from this oflice the postmaster of this town, 

 the name of which is omitted for obvious reasons, wrote December 17, 

 1904, that eflforts were made to locate the origin of the account, but 

 without success. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



The hair-worms of the genus Mermis develop within the body of their 

 host and, according to various writers, when about full grown desert it 

 by rupturing the body wall. These individuals are undeveloped sexuallj', 

 and characterized by a mouth consisting of a minute aperture, and a 

 minute anal point which is generall}- curved. On issuing from the host 

 the w^orm bores into the earth and conceals itself. During this stage in 

 the soil no food is taken, though several months may elapse, the creature 

 hibernating and becoming sexually mature before copulation takes place 

 in the spring. The sexes unite in knots, and the female deposits 

 numerous eggs^ in the ground. Here the young, which are thread-like 

 like their parents, hatch and burrow upward to the surface, and enter 

 as parasites the bodies of caterpillars and various soft insects, such as 

 are found under leaves and other debris near the ground. 



The habits of Mermis in P]urope have given rise to the belief in a rain 

 of worms. Not infrequentlj' in summer time, after a warm rain at night, 

 swarms of these hair-worms appear on the surface of the earth, whence 

 the supposition that they are rained down. 



' It might be added that hair-worms positively' do not develop from horse hairs. 



