26 



then forced to the conclusion that the living - embryo, in some 

 manner, finds its way into birds, and is there developed into the 

 perfect worm. That the gapes can be artificially produced by 

 feeding the embryos of Syngamus hatched in water to chicks, we 

 readily admit, for we have proved such is the case by experiment 

 13. But we deny that this is the natural way in which they con- 

 tract the disease. In this climate of ours, with a long severe 

 winter, the thermometer is often down to zero, water, when re- 

 maining on the surface of the ground would be frozen a hundred 

 times, and during the warm season none would be found except 

 in rainy weather. How then, we ask, would it be possible for 

 the embryo to live through the cold season in water, and be taken 

 by chicks the next spring, in the water they drink from the sur- 

 face of the ground. Some of the Nematoid worms, to which class 

 Syngamus belongs, can be brought to maturity by being taken in 

 water. Nevertheless they have intermediate hosts which act as a 

 bearer, exactly as the earthworm acts as a bearer to the gape worm. 

 They differ from most of the tape worms which have to pass 

 through an intermediate host, in which they are partially devel- 

 oped, to prepare them for a final development in their last host. 

 To illustrate: Trichinae belong to the Nematoid worms, the 

 same class as the gape worm, and could be propngated in man by 

 drinking them in water, but did you ever hear of this taking place 

 in nature? No! They get them from their intermediate host, the 

 hog. The question is not what might happen, but what does 

 actually occur in nature, without the intervention of man. I do 

 not believe the Creator, in his infinite wisdom, has designed that 

 the gape worm should be without a bearer, for you can easily 

 perceive what would become of the poor worm in these Northern 

 States were such the case. The soil is often frozen to a great 

 depth, and it would be utterly destroyed. Besides this, it could 

 not be picked up by a chick or bird, except by the merest acci- 

 dent, for it is so small it could not be seen. No! this is not so. 

 It has been wisely decreed that the earthworm should be its inter- 

 mediate host, in the intestine of which it finds all the nourishment 

 necessary to sustain it. When winter comes it is carried deep into 

 the ground, out of all reach of cold, and in the spring is brought 

 again to the surface ready to be picked up in the earthworm, and 

 pass through the remaining portion of its existence in its final 

 host, the fowl. Now, the proof is positive, and must be acknowledged, 

 that earthworms do contain the embryos of Syngamus trachealis, and 



