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the Pyrenees by epizootic disease, are regarded by the 

 peasantry as serpents. In helminthological circles it is 

 generally understood, in accordance with the views ori- 

 ginally promulgated of Kiichenmeister, that the fiery 

 serpents of Moses were nematode entozoa, or guinea- worms. 

 It was the lamented Russian traveller, Fedschenko, who 

 proved that fresh-water Crustacea were the intermediate 

 bearers of the Dracunculus. The boring or tunnelling 

 of the Dracunculus is, in itself, not more remarkable than 

 the boring of certain parasites of fish. I have dissected 

 several examples of the sun-fish, and I shall never forget 

 the first monster (Orthagoriscus mo la) which came under 

 my observation. The huge liver might almost be said 

 to have formed a mere bag of worms. Hour after 

 hour I tried to dissect out some of the Tetrarhynchi or 

 Gymnorhynchi (as Professor Goodsir termed them), but they 

 were inextricably twisted one within another. To get out 

 some twenty inches of unbroken strobile was all that could 

 be done. In another, and quite a young fish, the lateral 

 muscles were even more infested than the liver itself ; but 

 judging from what has been recorded by others, this mus- 

 cular parasitism in the sun-fish is exceptional. Be that 

 as it may, it is my firm belief that injuries to the vital 

 organs of fish, such as I have repeatedly witnessed, cannot 

 be produced without sooner or later involving the destruc- 

 tion of the host. I am satisfied that it was the enfeebled 

 condition of one monster sun-fish that led to its easy 

 capture by the fishermen of the Firth of Forth. Parasites 

 are constantly present in the sun-fish. I have just received 

 a letter from Dr. Van Dyck, of Beyrout, stating that he 

 also has encountered the Tetrarhynchus reptans in this 

 oceanic monster. I am aware that it was lately announced 

 in the pages of Land and Water that a recently captured 



