NATURE OF THE DRACUNCULUS, OR GUINEAWORM. 103 
indoles quoad particulas tantum examinari potuit, sed ab illa aliarum specierum eo 
recedere visa, quod tuniez leves neque foetuum velamenta fere ulla sisterentur, sed 
passim tantummodo inter innumeros foetus grumosi quid adesset." In the body of this 
work, also, Rudolphi speaks of certain peculiarities in the shape of the anterior and pos- 
terior extremities of the worm as characterizing the two sexes, though, in an appendix, 
he retracts this statement, on finding, after more careful observation, that all the worms 
examined were female and proliferous. : 
Dr. Chapotin* gives the following account of the anterior extremity of Filaria medi- 
nensis :—“ Examinée à la loupe, l'extrémité antérieure, légèrement renflóe, m'a paru 
offrir, dans le centre un sucoir, sur les cótés duquel se voient deux petites protubérances 
arrondies,” whilst the posterior extremity, he says, is constantly * terminée assez brus- 
quement par un petit crochet contractile, et dont j'ai vu les mouvements." 
. M. Jacobson, in a letter to M. de Blainville+, narrates that, in the extraction of one of 
these worms, he accidentally wounded it with the point of the lancet, and from the 
opening thus made, he says, ** découloit une matiére blanche ; mais ce que m'étonna le plus, 
c'est que le ver se vida, et que les parois de son corps s’affaisstrent.” On submitting this 
white matter to microscopical examination, he found, not eggs as he expected, but that it 
consisted almost entirely of small actively moving worms. He says, “ce qui est presque 
inconcevable, c'est la quantitó innombrable de vermicules dont le corps du dragonneau 
est rempli, sans que j'ai trouvé aucune trace de viscére qui les renfermeroit...... Sont- 
ce bien les petits du dragonneau?..... ou bien, je n'ose presque pas faire cette 
question, le dragonneau ne seroit-il qu'un tube ou un fourreau rempli de vermicules ? 7 
He seems to have made no further observations upon the structure of the parent worm, 
though he gives figures of seven or eight of its countless progeny, to which I shall have 
again to refer. 
Leblond examined a small fragment of a Guineaworm, one inch and a half in length— 
being one of the separate portions of the only specimen of the worm contained in the Musée 
d'Histoire Naturelle at Paris—and seems to have been the first and only observer, before 
Mr. Carter, who recognized the existence of both a genital and an alimentary tube. 
He sayst, “ Jel'ai fendu longitudinalement, et j'ai trouvé, au sein de l'enveloppe musculo- 
cutanée, un tube fibrineux gorgé de matière verdátre, qui était évidemment une portion 
du canal intestinal; puis un autre tube également fibrineux óraillé, qui renfermait un 
nombre immense de jeunes filaires. J'ai dà regarder ce tube comme une portion des 
cavités génitales.” 
Professor Owen remarks$, ** In a recent specimen of small size we have observed that 
the orbicular mouth was surrounded by three slightly raised sw ellings, which were con- 
tinued a little way along the body and gradually lost...... The caudal extremity of 
the male is obtuse, and emits a single spiculum ; in the female it is acute and suddenly 
inflected.” He also notices two longitudinal muscular bands, and an external elastic 
+ Nouvelles Annales du Muséum, tom. iii. p. 80, 1834. : 
* Bulletin des Sciences Médicales, Mai 1810. d 
ravaux. de 
+ Quelques Matériaux pour servir à l'histoire des Filaires et des Strongyles. Précis analyt. des t 
l'Acad. Roy. de Rouen, 1835, p. 150. | 
$ Cyclopæd. of Anat. and Physiol., Art. “ Entozoa," 1837, pp. 122, 143. : 9 
= 
