410 PARASITES OF ANIMALS 



memoir on " Parasites " (' London Medical Record/ April 2, 

 1873), the President of the London Microscopical Society 

 (through Mr Slack, who was at that time the secretary) 

 forwarded to me a box of microscopic slides received by the 

 Society from Australia. The slides displayed parasites of 

 various kinds. Having been requested to identify the parasites 

 I had the good fortune to recognise amongst them characteristic 

 examples of Stephanurus dentatus. Thus was first made known 

 the fact that this singular genus was not confined in its 

 geographical distribution to the two American continents, but 

 that it extended to Australia. The order of the principal 

 " finds " and descriptions may therefore be thus restated. 

 Natterer discovered the worm in Brazil in 1834. Diesing 

 described it in 1839. Dr J. C. White re-discovered and 

 identified the worm in 1858. It was subsequently found by 

 Dr N. Cressy and by Dr Fletcher. These three observers all 

 encountered the parasite in the United States (1858-70). 

 Prof. Verrill re- described the worm as new to science in Sep- 

 tember, 1870. Diesing confirmed White's diagnosis in 1860. 

 I identified the worm from Fletcher's " find " in 1871. Dr 

 Morris supposed he had discovered a new entozoon in Australia 

 in July, 1871. The Australian worms were identified by me 

 as examples of Stephanurus dentatus in October, 1871. 



The importance of Stephanurus in relation to porcine epizooty 

 and the supply of animal food cannot be ignored. As remarked 

 in my communication to ' Nature/ it must be quite obvious that 

 so large a parasite, when present in the hog in any considerable 

 numbers, would give rise to serious disease, even if it were not 

 productive of fatal results to the bearer. In one of his nume- 

 rous communications to myself, Prof. W. B. Fletcher writes 

 as follows : " It is my opinion that this parasite is the cause, 

 in some way, of the hog cholera, which has created such sad 

 havoc within the past ten years over the pork-producing parts 

 of America. One farmer told me, a few days ago, that within a 

 month his loss alone from this cause was over one hundred 

 head; and sometimes, in one neighbourhood, in a few days' 

 time, thousands have perished, although this season is not a 

 cholera year, as our farmers say. I advised one farmer to 

 burn or bury the dead animals, but he informed me that he 

 believed that fewer hogs die of the disease after eating the 

 dead animals than those kept from them. Unfortunately, in 

 this State there is no law guarding the spread of disease, 



