294 Account of a Filaria in a Horse’s E’ye. 
lymphatics, but especially in their reticular tissue, the glands, 
which lead to local congestions of lymph, inflammations, and 
morbid appearances of various kinds, become in this manner ve- 
ry easy of comprehension ; and these assuredly deserve the at- 
tention of medical science, not as speculations, but as realities. 
Thousands of eggs of intestinal worms, whose existence in many 
bodies can not be denied, must perish, as they are rarely develop- 
ed in such great quantities from the difficulty of their attaining 
the place and conditions favorable for their development; while 
only some, very often none, ever actually attain those conditions. 
This relative proportion of the number of intestinal worms and 
of their eggs to the organs of the larger animals, is also found to 
exist. There are very often observed in animal dissections a 
small number of full-grown worms, filled with an innumerable 
quantity of eggs, without any young in their proximity; and I 
was often astonished to find in the: considerable number of my 
dissections of animal bodies, (I have brought from Africa alone 
intestinal worms of 196 species of animals, all of which I have 
myself dissected, and of some from 40 to 50 individuals, ) only a 
few alive, although these were completely filled with eggs. 
Thus from laborious observations this opinion has become more 
and more firmly fixed in my mind, that it is much more astonish- 
ing how the great fecundity of the Entozoa should be so limited 
by the living organs, than that it should be possible that living 
worms should inhabit them, and, considering their diffusion, es- 
cape observations which are geuerally superficial.” 
Such are the views of this very able naturalist on this difli- 
cult subject, and I believe they are those which eventually will 
be generally adopted. In this manner can we only satisfactorily 
account for the existence of worms in the fetus of man and oth- 
er animals, and in the intestines of chickens and the young of 
other birds, which have just broken the shell; numerous instan- 
ces of which have been recorded by Rudolphi, Blumenbach and 
others. Isee no great difficulty in the supposition that these 
Ova are absorbed by the lacteals and lymphatics, and carried into 
‘he circulation, as they are known to be smaller than the particles 
of quicksilver, and the coloring matter of madder, &c., which it 
is well known are constantly taken up and deposited in the —— 
and other tissues of the body. We believe then that it is in the 
highest degree probable, if not actually proved, that the minute 
