2i8 TIMOTHY RICHARDS LEWIS. 



Writing in 1872 Dr. Cobboldj after describing the history of a 

 little girl who had been suffering from hsematuria associated with 

 the Distomum haematobium, refers to the circumstance that he 

 obtained from the patient some other urinary parasites in the 

 egg condition} '' On five separate occasions/' writes Dr. Cobbold, 

 " I obtained one or more specimens of the eggs or embryos of a 

 minute nematode. In one instance there were about fifty of these 

 ova in the urine : their embryonic contents being well developed, 

 and in a state of activity. Usually they were all in this advanced 

 condition J but on the 25th of July, 1870, several were observed 

 in much earlier stages of development." The fully grown eggs 

 gave a longitudinal measurement of -Jnr " by --oV-o" iii breadth. 

 Judging from the description of the ova and their contained 

 embryos, it would seem that the parental form must have been 

 oviparous. The embryos, when freed artificially from the tg's^, 

 measured 3-—" in length by 3^0—" i^ breadth. On two 

 occasions free dead specimens were observed which had been lying 

 in water some time, and these measured -^" by tV-oo" The 

 parents of the patient had mentioned that the latter had '' passed 

 three small vermiform entozoa by the urethra."^ 



Dr. Cobbold writes : '^ I have been thus particular in recording 

 these facts, because future discoveries may enable us to identify 



Fig. 2. — Ova and freed embryos of an oviparous nematode ; obtained in 

 urine. (After Cobbold.) 



the species of nematode to which these ova are referable. I know 

 only one set of observations on record which refer to this same 

 species of parasite.^' The parasite referred to is the above-cited 

 Trichina cystica. As it may be a convenience to future observers 

 to be able to judge of these matters for themselves in the absence 

 of the original papers, I have reproduced Dr. Cobbold 's illustra- 

 tions, together with a reduced outline of Dr. Salisbury's figure. 

 The reduction has been effected by means of a camera lucida, so 



' During the last seven years I must have examined the sediment of very 

 many gallons of chylous urine, but never observed any ova of nematodes, 

 though, from time to time, I have found many hundreds of em.bryos. 



