152 HTDATIDS. 



present state of our globe exists which has not a 

 parent. The first parent did not come forth into life 

 by any spontaneous or casual process, whereby inert 

 matter became the designer of its own design ; but 

 was formed by the God of heaven and earth, whose 

 wisdom and goodness are manifest in every struc- 

 tural part, in every action, in every instinct of 

 every organized body, from man to the microscopic 

 animalcule, from the cedar or the oak to the red 

 snow plant of the polar regions. To attribute the 

 existence, then, of the cerebral hydatid to sponta- 

 neous ' generation, is worse than folly ; or rather, is 

 the folly?of the man who says in his heart, " There 

 is no God." 



Let us now proceed to the examination of these 

 strange entozoa, and then endeavour to show how 

 they may be, (we do not say, how they are,) 

 deposited in the parts of the frame which they 

 occupy. 



The cerebral hydatid* appears like a globular 

 membranous bag or cyst, filled with gelatinous 

 fluid, and varies in size from that of a pea to that of 

 a hen's egg. The membrane composing the cyst 

 is transparent and delicately thin, but consists of 

 two or three layers, of which one at least appears 

 to be muscular, regular interlacing fibres being dis- 

 cernible in its structure, by means of a powerful 

 microscope ; and the hydatid, when removed and 

 put into warm water, or when stimuli are applied, 

 * Csenurus cerebralis. 



