SOLIDUNGULA 361 



of 200 bots, 153 lumbricoids, upwards of 400 oxyurides, 

 and several thousand palisade worms, besides numerous tape- 

 worms. In Mr Poulton's patient large quantities of tape- 

 worms were found in the duodenum (and in large sacs of the 

 walls of other sections of the small intestine), and also myriads 

 of the little four-spined strongyle, in addition to about a score 

 of palisade worms. Both Megnin's and Poulton's patients died 

 suddenly; but the great interest attaching to Megnin' s case 

 arises from the boldness of manner in which the French savant 

 interprets the phenomena of the intestinal sacculation in relation 

 to the development of the tapeworms. M. Megnin assumes 

 that the sacs are due to the formation of polycephalous or 

 ccenuroid scolices. Without contradicting Megnin' s ingenious 

 interpretation of the phenomena in question, I may say that the 

 difficulty I have in accepting his view arises from the circum- 

 stance of the rarity of the occurrence of these sacs. In Poul- 

 ton's case of Tania perfoliata, the sacs were present, and they 

 were productive of similar results ; but in the scores of other 

 recorded cases of sudden death from the same species of tape- 

 worm (as published by Mr Bees Lloyd, and myself), the pre- 

 sence of such sac-formations is not once mentioned. To be 

 sure, their presence may have been overlooked, but this is 

 scarcely likely, seeing the great care taken by Mr Lloyd in 

 conducting the autopsies. I cannot dwell upon the subject at 

 greater length. The presence of so many sexually-immature 

 strobiles, combined with the existence of the intestinal wall 

 sacs, certainly does seem to point to the existence of ccenuroid 

 bladder-worms, but until the existence of the polycephalous 

 scolex be actually demonstrated one must be cautious in con- 

 cluding " that the horse nourishes at the same time the strobila 

 and scolex of the unarmed tapeworm/' Practically, we now 

 know for certain that not only are tapeworms capable of pro- 

 ducing a fatal issue in isolated cases, such as those recorded 

 by Megnin and Poulton, but that they may also be productive 

 of disastrous epizooty, as proved by Mr Lloyd in the case of 

 Welsh mountain ponies. 



In this connection I may perhaps be pardoned for saying 

 that this discovery in 1875 was one of the practical results 

 directly issuing from the publication of my e Manual' 

 1874. The attention of the veterinary profession 

 been called to the subject of parasitic epizooty, Mr JKloyd 

 was the first to make search for helminths amongs^f some 



