ASCAEIDES. 409 



was more of a reddish-white colour, arranged in a spiral form, 

 and Gescheidt leaves it undecided whether it was a male or a 

 female. The worms were very thin, of the same thickness 

 throughout, more acute towards the head, and more clubbed 

 towards the tail, but had always a thin, short, crooked point. 

 The mouth was small, tolerably circular, without papillae (lips). 

 The intestine was yellowish, straight, without curvature, and 

 without dilatation, and opened into a simple, round orifice, with- 

 out any prominence. The ovaries were delicate, spiral cylinders, 

 running close to the intestinal canal, and, according to Gescheidt, 

 opening at the same place as the anus. For my part, I cannot 

 admit that proof is given that we have to do here with females 

 and ovaries, or that the opening of the ovaries into the anus, as 

 above described, could have taken place (a circumstance unknown 

 in the females of Filaria, and indeed in all the females of nema- 

 tode worms with which I am acquainted). They were undoubtedly 

 quite immature animals, and the opening of this cylinder into the 

 anus was certainly a mistake of Gescheidt's. The tubes termi- 

 nated in blind extremities at both ends, as in the Trichina, which, 

 indeed, as already remarked, are said to be produced from FilaricR, 

 and in the case of certain species of Trichinae may really originate 

 therefrom. 



Progress. The reaction connected with the immigration and 

 growth of the Filaria is probably but small in general, but such 

 guests may very easily give the first tendency to cloudiness of the 

 lens and cataracts. Their diagnosis in the living subject must 

 be rendered possible by the assistance of the ocular mirror ; their 

 prognosis falls under that of cataract ; their therapeutics are those 

 of cataracta lentis, with the limitation, however, that when these 

 worms occur in the lens every one must consider that the extrac- 

 tion but never the mere depression of the lens is indicated ; when 

 situated in the cornea they are removed, like foreign bodies, by 

 simple incision. 



V. Ascarides. 



These worms, described by Dujardin as the nineteenth genus of 

 the Nematoda, and as the fourth genus in the fourth section 

 (Ascaridia), are treated of by Diesing as Genus XX in Order VI 

 of the Achcethelmintha elastica, but the Oxyuri are also introduced 

 into this genus. The true Ascarides stand, according to Diesing, 



