80 PEOr. T. S. COBBOLD ON A 



water fishes. Not only so ; further comparison with other 

 hitherto described Ligules showed that it came nearer to L. sim- 

 pUcissima than to any other species. "Without asserting posi- 

 tively that it may not be a variety of that form, I think we are 

 justified in regarding the human worm as the immature repre- 

 sentative of a totally distinct species. The unique character of 

 its habitat, associated with certain difierences of form, seem to 

 warrant this conclusion. 



LiGULA Mansoni, sp. nov. 



Strobile flat, with iiTegufar transverse folds, broader in front than 

 behind ; bead distinct, vVith regularly arranged rugse, produced anteriorly 

 to form a papilla, retracted at the point to form a deep sucker-like eup ; 

 ventral surface marked by a distinct longitudinal groove in the middle 

 line ; reproductive pores wanting. 



Length (in the bving state) 12 to 14 inches ; breadth ^ of an inch ; 

 thickness -g-^ of an inch. 



Hah. Cavity of the pleura and subserous aponeurotic membranes of 

 the abdomen of man. 



The more one reflects upon what is know^n of the life-history 

 of the Ligules the more one becomes puzzled to account for this 

 invasion of the human body. The occurrence may fairly be pro- 

 nounced unique. It is true, indeed, that one other instance has 

 been placed on record where a Ligule was said to have escaped 

 from the human intestine. I allude to the case mentioned by 

 E-udolphi, and already quoted by Dr. Duchamp in his beautiful 

 memoir published in 1876. Parasitism by Ligules in other crea- 

 tures than birds and fishes is of such rare occurrence tliat M. 

 Duchamp is iuclined to regard such phenomena as accidental. He 

 then refers to the (as supposed by him) only two instances hitherto 

 placed on record, namely the human case and the instance where 

 one was found in a seal, and remai'ks that even these " are far from 

 being quite certain." What he says respecting the human case is 

 well worth quoting. This instance, he says, "reported by Eudolphi 

 from an observation about the year 1763, concerns a young girl, 

 25 years of age, [_sic] who along with Tcenia appears to have 

 passed fragments of a ligule. Even before the publication of the 

 ' Histoire des Entozoaires,' Bloch had shown how difficult it was 

 to admit the introduction of a living ligule with food, by the 

 experiments undertaken to reply to Eosen of Eosenstein, who 

 supposed that the thing was quite possible, and who had himself 

 seen living ligules in cooked fish (poissoiis ciiits).'" 



The quotation by M. Duchamp is made from Eudolphi's 



