PACHYDERM ATA 413 



it was also obtained by Natterer from the collared peccary of 

 Tayazou. Common as the great Echinorhynchus is in the 

 United States (and it is scarcely less so on the Continent) I 

 believe that few, if any, of the museums in the United 

 Kingdom of Great Britain contain this large entozoon. It is a 

 curious fact that it does not exist in the Hunterian Collection, 

 where, however, there is displayed a very fine set of acantho- 

 cephalous parasites from whales. When in the year 1865 I 

 mounted, with my own hands, 200 preparations of entozoa for 

 the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, I had not so 

 much as seen a specimen of this worm. Much scientific interest 

 attaches to this parasite from the fact that Schneider discovered 

 that the embryos of E. gigas take up their residence in the 

 larvae of the cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris). He thinks it 

 identical with the Echinorhynchus hominis of Lambl. Leuckart 

 disputes this identity, and compares Lambl's worm with the 

 Echinorhynchus angustatus of our fresh-water fishes. The 

 E. spirula of certain Brazilian monkeys and of the Barbary 

 ape bears a strong resemblance to the species from the hog. 

 On the strength of Lambl's case and it is the only genuine 

 instance of the kind on record Prof. Leuckart devotes no less 

 than 125 pages of his great work to the consideration of the struc- 

 ture and development of the thorn-headed intestinal worms. 

 This worm demands especial attention. Speaking of the 

 hog's Echinorhynchus, Prof. Yerrill, in his ' Connecticut Report/ 

 says that " sometimes the intestine of a hog is found perforated 

 by so many holes that it cannot be used in the manufacture of 

 sausages/ 7 From Mr George Wilkins I learn that the pig- 

 slaughterers of our English metropolis are well acquainted with 

 these perforations, which are sometimes so numerous that the 

 gut looks as if it had been " riddled " with swan-shot. No 

 wonder that diseased hogs, afflicted with these formidable 

 parasites, go about, as Yerrill expresses it, "continually 

 squealing and grunting, especially in the morning." That 

 they are also "cross and morose, and given to biting and 

 snarling at their companions," is by no means astonishing. 

 " In severe cases," remarks Yerrill, " hogs afflicted with this 

 parasite are weak in the loins, and have the membranes in the 

 corners of the eyes swollen, watery, and lighter colored than 

 usual." It is some comfort to know that Lambl's human case 

 is unique, and that so long as people abstain from eating cock- 

 chafer larvae they are not likely to be infested by Echino- 



