124 



ENTOZOA. 



form substances are elongated bodies of a 

 moderately firm, solid, homogeneous texture, 

 varying in length from four to eight inches ; 

 attenuated at both extremities; having the 

 diameter of a line half-way between the ex- 

 tremities and the middle part, where the body 

 is contracted and abruptly bent upon itself. 

 Some are irregularly trigonal, others tetragonal. 

 In the three-sided specimens one surface is 

 broad, convex, and smooth ; the other two are 

 narrow and concave, and separated by a nar- 

 row longitudinal groove, in which is sometimes 

 lodged a filamentary brown concretion. In 

 the tetragonal portions the broad smooth sur- 

 face is divided into two parts by the rising of 

 the middle part of the convexity into an angle. 

 The most remarkable appearance in these am- 

 biguous productions is the beautiful crenation 

 of one of the angles or ridges between the 

 convex and concave facet; which, from its 

 regularity and constancy, can hardly be ac- 

 counted for on the theory of their nature and 

 origin suggested by Rudolphi : * lymphamque 

 in canalibus fistulosis coactam passimque com- 

 pressam filum inaequale efformare crediderim.'* 

 On the other hand it is equally difficult to form 

 any satisfactory notion of these substances 

 as organized bodies growing by an inherent 

 and independent vitality. We have not been 

 able to observe a single example in which the 

 substance had both extremities well defined 

 and unbroken; these, on the contrary, are 

 flattened, membranous, and more or less jagged 

 and irregular. They present no trace of ali- 

 mentary or generative orifices on any part of 

 their exterior surface, nor any canals subser- 

 vient to those functions, in the interior paren- 



Fig. 70. 



Spiroptera honunis. (* Natural sixe.) 



per catheterem ex vesica pauperculae educta, ne- 

 quaquam talia habenda sunt. Corpuscula sunt 

 plus minus globosa, tertiam lineae partem diametro 

 superantia, duriuscula, forcipi comprimenti reni- 

 tentia, dissecta solida visa, quominuspro hydatulis 

 haberi possint, quales primo suspicatus sum. Con- 

 crementae sunt lymphatica in vesica imorbosa ex 

 humoribus alionatis ibidem secretis, simili forsan 

 modo acarenulae ex lolio praecipitata." Rudolphi, 

 Syiiops. Entoz. p. 251. 

 * Ibid. p. 252. 



chyma. If subsequent observations on re- 

 cently expelled specimens of these most 

 curious and interesting productions should, 

 however, establish their claims to be regarded 

 as Entozoa, they will probably rank as a sim- 

 ple form of Sterelmintha* 



The existence of the Spiroptera Hominis is 

 founded on the observation of substances very 

 different from the preceding productions. The 

 specimens so called were transmitted to Ru- 

 dolphi, in a separate phial, at the same time 

 with the ova and larger parenchymatous bodies 

 above described, and are presumed to have 

 been expelled from the same female under the 

 same circumstances. They consisted of six 

 small Nematoid worms of different sexes; 

 the males (Jig. 70*) were eight, the females ten 

 lines in length, slender, white, highly elastic. 



The head (a, jig. 70) truncated, and with 

 one or two papillae ; the mouth orbicular, the 

 body attenuated at both extremities, but espe- 

 cially anteriorly. The tail in the female 

 thicker, and with a short obtuse apex ; that of 

 the male more slender, and emitting a small 

 mesial tubulus (c), probably the sheath of the 

 penis: a dermal aliform production near the 

 same extremity determines the reference of this 

 Entozoon to the genus Spiroptera. 



There are no specimens of this Entozoon 

 among the substances discharged from the 

 urethra of the female, whose case is above 

 alluded to, which are preserved in the Museum 

 of the College of Surgeons. 



The following parasite of the urinary appa- 

 ratus, concerning which no obscurity or doubt 

 prevails, is the Strongylm gigas (fig- 71), the 

 giant not only of its genus but of the whole 

 class of cavitary worms. This species is de- 

 veloped in the parenchyma of the kidney 

 itself, and occasionally attains the length of 

 three feet, with a diameter of half an inch. 

 A worm of nearly this magnitude, which oc- 

 cupied the entire capsule of the left kidney, 

 of the parenchyma of which it had occasioned 

 the total destruction, is preserved in the collec- 

 tion of the Royal College of Surgeons. 



The male Slrongylus gigas is less than the 

 female, and is slightly attenuated at both ex- 

 tremities. The head () is obtuse, the mouth 

 orbicular, and surrounded by six hemispherical 

 papillae (A); the body is slightly impressed 

 with circular striae, and with two longitudinal 

 impressions ; the tail is incurved in the male, 

 and terminated by a dilated pouch orbursa, from 

 the base of which the single intromittent spi- 

 culum (6) projects. In the female the caudal 

 extremity is less attenuated and straighter, 

 with the anus (c) a little below the apex : the 

 vulva (d,fg. 95) is situated at a short distance 

 from the anterior extremity. 



The Strongylm gigas is not confined to the 

 Human Subject, but more frequently infests 

 the kidney of the Dog, Wolf, Otter, Raccoon, 

 Glutton, Horse, and Bull. It is generally of 

 a dark blood-colour, which seems to be owing 



* These bodies are figured in the excellent ac- 

 count of the present anomalous case by Mr. Law- 

 rence, in the Medico - Chirurgical Transactions, 

 vol. ii. pi. 8, p. 385. 



