NATURE OF THE DRACUNCULUS, OR GUINEAWORM. 117 
way alike. In common with other observers, I have been unable to discover any vulva 
or vagina; but the symmetrical formation of the two extremities of the genital tube 
leads me to believe that the genital aperture, if it does exist, must be situated a short 
distance behind the middle of the body—regarding the two terminal tubes as ovaries, 
and the large sac as a double oviduct or uterus, which by its enormous development 
appears to form one great tube, and which has obliterated the vagina*. This point could 
only be satisfactorily cleared up by the examination of very young specimens, before the 
genital apparatus had assumed such an unusual development. 
Mr. Carter appears, however, to have examined worms of different ages, and is positive 
that there is no proper outlet to the generative organs. His observations go to prove 
that the distended genital tube in the mature worm is protruded through a rupture of 
the integuments near the mouth. If this be the usual case, the specimens I have ex- 
amined cannot have been full-grown, as in them the termination of the genital tube was 
at least one inch, and in one specimen 23 inches, from the anterior extremity. 
This process of giving exit to the young or the ova by rupture of the integuments and 
genital tubes, seems by no means an unusual occurrence in the Nematoid worms, judging 
from the statement of Rudolphit, who, speaking of Cucullanus, says :—** Ovula, verme 
quieto, per intervalla ex volva pullulent, quin eodem disrupto, quod ssepe accidit, ovula 
vel embryones ex ovariis prolapsis pariterque ruptis vi quàdam et undatim protrudantur." 
In the specimens I have examined, throughout the greater part of the length of the 
worm the uterus was distended to such an extent as to have become closely adherent to 
the parietes of the body, the alimentary canal being pressed flat between the two. This 
adhesion between the coats of the uterus and the parietes of the body is, throughout 
nearly its whole extent, so intimate that they cannot be readily separated till after 
maceration in water for a day or two; and even then the genital membranes can only 
be scratched off piecemeal by needles after the body of the worm has been slit open. 
For about one or two inches, however, from either blunt extremity of this large sac 
it is not adherent to the peritoneum, but is separated by some fine granular matter, 
and can be removed entire. 
Such being the condition of the genital tube, if any portion of the worm not bordering 
upon either extremity be examined, the observer is liable to entertain most erroneous 
opinions concerning its anatomy, as, on slitting open the integuments, the adherent uterus 
is also eut (Pl. XXI. fig. 20), and a consistent cylinder of opaque white matter only is 
met with, which, on being broken up and submitted to the microscope, is found to consist 
wholly of young Filaric and a little fine granular matter—not a vestige apparently of a 
containing tube or alimentary canal being visible. This, I have little doubt, is the 
explanation of Professor Owen’s and M. Jacobson’s statement that the worm consisted 
of a mere sae with contained young, but without any trace of either genital or intestinal 
* One cannot but be struck with the extremely abortive condition of the ovarian tubes proper of the orm, 
as compared with the development of the uteri or ovarian ducts; and this is the more remarkable when we consider 
that these are precisely the parts of the female generative organs which are most developed in the Nematoids generally. 
instead of one inch, as in Filaria 
In Ascaris lumbricoides each ovary measures, according to Cloquet, about four feet, 
medinensis. 
T Entozoor. Hist. Nat. i. p. 310 ; vide also i. ii. pt. 1, p. 105. 
YOL. XXIV. 
