82 LECTURES. 



shape, exhibiting rather lively movements under the 

 application of warmth/' The best way to rear the 

 vermiform stage of oxyuris is to put a number of 

 the eggs in a glass tube filled up with saliva. The 

 tube should then be placed in the arm-pit, in 

 which situation it can be carried about with little 

 inconvenience. In a very short space of time 

 the transformations will commence, and go on con- 

 tinuously until the vermiform condition is attained. 

 If it be asked whether the embryos, whilst still 

 within escaped eggs which have found their way 

 into the human bowel, are capable of arriving at this 

 vermiform stage of maturity, the answer is decidedly 

 in the affirmative ; for, as Leuckart has also re- 

 marked, " the elongated embryos are to be found 

 not only in the faeces, but also in the mucus of the 

 rectum above and around the anus/' I believe it 

 was further stated by Vix that the mature or 

 vermiform embryos were occasionally to be detected 

 in the intestine of the human bearer along with the 

 eggs ; but if he meant that they were thus hatched 

 in the caecum, colon, or rectum, all the evidence 

 obtained by later investigations goes to disprove his 

 interpretation of known and recognised facts. 

 According to Leuckart the escape of the embryos 

 from the eggs "ordinarily takes place under the 

 action of the gastric juice, also primarily in that 

 condition when they have by some means or other 

 gained access to a new bearer/' 



