The Sheep-Fluke. 



before the facts became widely accepted. What wonder that doubt arose 

 when a few naturalists announced a series of generations so astonishing that 

 it would hardly be more remarkable to say that a horse had begotten a cow, 

 which in turn had given birth to a goat ! Yet it turned out that the pioneers 

 were right, and that the fluke in the liver of the sheep was in reality the 

 descendant, two or three 

 generations removed, of 

 the microscopic animal- 

 cule that danced and 

 Avhirled merrily along in 

 the pools of the sheep 

 pasture. 



Finally, the whole 

 matter was cleared up — 

 at least, so it was 

 thought. The eggs of 

 the sheep-fluke taken 

 from dung were arti- 

 ficially hatched, the 

 young were given a 

 chance to penetrate cer- 

 tain species of snails. 

 There they went 

 through their remark- 

 able metamorphosis, 

 came out again, and en- 

 cysted themselves on 

 the surface of grass, 

 where they were ready 

 to be taken in by any 

 unfortunate sheep that 

 happened along. Once 

 in the sheep's stomach 

 the young fluke was not 

 long in finding its way 

 to the liver, where it 

 took up its abode, and 

 customarily lived to a 

 happy old age, much, 

 however, to the detri- 

 ment of the unfortunate 

 sheep. 



Such in brief is the 

 life history of the sheep- 

 fluke — a history which, 

 though it may now be 

 told by any school-boy 

 in a few flippant words, 

 yet required the thought 

 and work of scores of 

 able men of science in ,. ^ . i -j i 



our and the preceding century to establish. Let us not forget to render its due 

 to the memory of these men, who, it is safe to say, never received m their mvn 

 time any other reward than the grateful remembrance of a few pupils m their 



