132 PARASITES OF MAN 



careous degeneration. Probably the most interesting of all is 

 the example showing an hydatid lodged in the septum of the 

 heart. This was from a middle-aged female, who died sud- 

 denly whilst pursuing her ordinary domestic avocations. 



The museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons contains a 

 fine collection of parasites, its chief strength in this respect 

 being due to the special series of entozoa. Were visitors to 

 judge by the contents of the catalogue of this series (which I 

 prepared some years ago at the instance of the Council of the 

 College), they might be led to suppose that the hydatids were 

 only feebly represented. Out of nine preparations of hydatids 

 in this section, only six have come from the human body. 

 However, scattered throughout the collection, I found that 

 there were no fewer than thirty-five preparations of hydatids 

 belonging, apparently, to as many as thirty separate cases. 

 Omitting, for the present, all mention of those derived from 

 animals, I ascertained that, of the thirty human cases, thirteen 

 were referable to the liver, four to the abdomen, three to the 

 lungs (one of which was originally connected with the liver), 

 and two to the brain. Five were of uncertain seat. With the 

 abdominal cases we may also include one case of hydatids of 

 the spleen, and another where these organisms were found in 

 the region of the bladder. There is a characteristic breast 

 case. One of the original Hunterian cases (in which " a pro- 

 digious number of hydatids were found in the sac of the liver 

 and dispersed throughout the cavity of the abdomen ") appears, 

 though it is not expressly so stated in the catalogue, to have 

 been regarded as an ordinary example of abdominal dropsy. 

 In one of the three lung cases two small hydatids were sepa- 

 rately expectorated at an interval of about a month. This 

 occurred in a female. 



I may here incidentally remark that many cases are on record 

 where abdominal hydatids have been overlooked, the patient 

 being supposed to be suffering from ascites. One such in- 

 stance took place a few years ago at the Middlesex Hospital. 

 I well remember a similar case of supposed hydrothorax, where 

 the post-mortem examination revealed the presence of immense 

 numbers of these formations occupying the right side of the 

 chest. This case occurred at the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Hospital, at the time when I was a student there, some 

 thirty-five years ago. 



The pathological collection connected with St George' s 



