SOLIDUNGULA. 381 



Hart, of Calcutta, and of Mr Percivall, of the llth Hussars, 

 stationed at Umballa, I have had abundant opportunities of 

 examining this entozoon and the singular pathological appear- 

 ances which it occasions. This parasite was first described by 

 Rudolphi, who says : " Spiroptera capitis discreti ore magno 

 nudo, cauda feminae rectiuscula acuta, mavis simpliciter spirali, 

 corpusculis rotundis ad basim penis styliformis." The worm 

 was afterwards observed by Schultze, Chabert, and frequently 

 also by Andral, but the best accounts of it are those given by 

 Gurlt, Valenciennes, and Dujardin. Schneider has likewise 

 done much to set at rest disputed points. Respecting the 

 Spiroptere du Cheval, Dujardin, writing in 1844, observes that 

 " Rudolphi at first studied this helminth from examples found in 

 great number by Reckleben, at Berlin, in tubercles of the 

 stomach of two horses. Quite recently, M. Valenciennes, at 

 Paris, has found it frequently in tumours, from twenty to forty 

 millimetres in size, in the stomach of eleven horses out of 

 twenty-five that he had subjected to this kind of research. 

 These tumours, lodged between the mucous and muscular layers 

 of the digestive canal, are perforated by several holes travers- 

 ing the mucous membrane. They are divided internally by a 

 number of folds into numerous intercommunicating cavities, 

 and sometimes filled with solid mucus and very many spirop- 

 teras. It is from examples collected by M. Valenciennes that 

 I have been able to study the parasite." 



As regards the description of the worm, it is almost needless 

 to say that Dujardin's account is minute and admirable in all 

 respects. In fact, no naturalist ever exceeded the Rennes savant 

 in carefulness and accuracy of detail. An interesting point con- 

 nected with these stomach-worms lies in the circumstance that 

 Gurlt recognised two varieties, one of which he termed Sp. meg., 

 var. major. It remained for Schneider to show that the larger 

 worms formed an altogether distinct species, which he termed 

 Filaria microstoma (' Monogr./ 1. c., 1866, s. 98). It was not 

 unnatural that Rudolphi and his successors should confound 

 these two forms together, and it is also not a little curious 

 that the smaller of the two species has the larger mouth. 

 Practically, veterinarians will probably rest content to know 

 that whilst the Spiroptera megastoma occupies tumours in the 

 walls of the stomach, the S. microstoma is always to be found 

 free in the cavity of that organ. Any helminthologist who 

 may chance to have read the Ceylon Company's report on the 



