436 APPENDIX. 



How had the mother preserved the entozoa; and how did she show 

 them? 



How many have you preserved besides the one transmitted ; and how 

 many did you count or see ? 



Excuse these questions ; but one must exhaust every vein of inquiry 

 before falling back upon the hypothesis of the development of the distoma 

 hepticum beneath an infant's scalp. 



I am, dear sir, yours truly, 



RICHAED OWEN. 



J. Penn Harris, Esq. 



Liverpool, October 26th, 1856. 



Dear Sir, I beg to offer you my best acknowledgments for your kind 

 and .suggestive reply to my letter enclosing the entozoon sent to you a 

 short time since. 



I have inquired more fully into the case, which has not, however, tended 

 to strengthen the proof that the entozoa came from the abscess in the 

 child's scalp. 



The mother's statement, viz., that she wiped them from the back of 

 the head on the removal of the poultice, is founded on very imperfect evi- 

 dence, as on inquiry I find on the removal of the poultice she washed the 

 back of the head with flannel and soap, at the same time gently pressing 

 the abscess to favour the escape of matter, which she did without observing 

 any of the fluke-worms. She afterwards took a cloth to dry the part 

 with, spreading it over the head and pressing lightly upon it ; she then 

 crumpled the cloth up without looking at its inner side, and placed it on 

 the table. About five minutes after, her daughter, on removing the cloth 

 from the table, observed on one of the upper folds five of the worms in 

 question, and on unfolding the cloth a sixth adhering to one of its corners ; 

 there was no pus about them. She immediately called the attention of 

 her mother to them, who immediately (and not perhaps unnaturally) 

 exclaimed " They must have come from the child's head ;" she placed them 

 in water, and afterwards put them into a pint bottle, which was of green 

 glass and not over clean, as when she showed them to me they were 

 mixed up with a soft, yellowish, shred-like material, which I did not 

 examine closely, but hastily separated the worms and threw it away. 

 I conclude the bottle must have contained some fungi which had escaped 

 the mother's notice. 



I find that on the morning the entozoa were seen the daughter had 

 been to the butcher's and purchased a piece of beef, which she brought 

 home about the time the mother commenced washing the child's head. 

 I cannot, however, make out that the cloth in question and the meat ever 

 came in contact, or the latter was ever placed on the table on which the 

 cloth was. 



I have since seen the butcher, who tells me that seldom a week passes 

 that he has not livers in his shop containing fluke-worms, and sometimes 

 in considerable quantities. 



I have endeavoured to trace a connection between the visit of the girl 

 to the butcher and the appearance of the fluke-worms on the cloth ; but 

 at present I have not been able satisfactorily to do so, though I think it 

 probable their discovery will be found to have some such connection. 



