50 American Fisheries Society 



al and immature, encysted forms in the body cavity. Oc- 

 casionally these worms will be found coiled up in the peri- 

 toneal lining of the body cavity, and less often they suc- 

 ceed in penetrating the flesh of their host. For example, 

 in a lot of codfish examined by Mr. Edwards in Decem- 

 ber, 1908, it was found that in about 2% of them a few 

 of these parasites had penetrated the flesh in the vicinity 

 of the back-bone. A few cases have been brought to my 

 attention where these parasites have been noticed in salt 

 codfish. For example, Dr. C. B. Wilson recently sent me 

 a piece of salt codfish with the request that an examin- 

 ation be made of it. I found in it three immature ascar- 

 ids, two of which had become lodged in the intermuscular 

 tissue while the third had burrowed into the muscle tis- 

 sue. Again, this past summer, a fish dealer brought to 

 my laboratory at Woods Hole some ascarids which an 

 agitated customer had returned to him from some salt 

 codfish which had been purchased from him. A more 

 disturbing case is furnished by a correspondent who made 

 the following inquiry: 



"Incidentally may I also ask what the worm is which 

 is so commonly met with in the muscles of the cod? In 

 those specimens which are caught in Mahone Bay (on 

 the south shore of Nova Scotia) proper, the worm is al- 

 most invariably found, while in the deep water cod, which 

 is gotten some miles outside, it is quite exceptional to 

 meet with the parasite." 



In discussing such cases I always attempted to show, 

 what I shall here also attempt to make clear, that the 

 occasional presence of such parasites should not be per- 

 mitted to arouse alarm. Of course when seen in the 

 process of preparing food for the table it would be no 

 sign of excessive fastidiousness to remove them, any 

 more than it is to reject the occasional caterpillar that 

 the cook may find in the lettuce that has come from the 

 market. Danger or damage to health or digestion is no 

 more to be apprehended in one case than in the other. In 

 short, when it is remembered that such forms will be 

 killed in the cooking, and will then be simply so much 



