174 DR. T. S. COBBOLD ON PARASITES COLLECTED 



Notes on Parasites collected by the late Charles Darwin, Esq. 

 By T. Spencer Cobbold, M.D., E.E.S., E.L.S., Hon. Yice- 

 President of the Birmingham Natural History and Micro- 

 scopical Society. 



[Eead 3rd December, 1885.] 



In the autumn of 1869 I received a letter from Mr. Darwin as 



follows : — 



Down, Beckenham, Kent, 

 August 9. 

 "Dear Sir,— 



" In looking over some bottles with specimens in spirit 

 from S. America and adjoining seas, collected by me nearly forty 

 years ago, I find a few parasitic worms, which it has occurred to 

 me you might possibly like to have. Should this prove the case, 

 be so kind as to inform me and they shall be sent to you. I 

 have looked at only one lot, viz. from the Rhea, or American 

 Ostrich, and these seemed not in a bad state ; 2ud, worms from 

 stomach of a Porcupine ; 3rd, from the mouth of a Snake ; 4th, 

 from the wild Gavia Colaya — these might be compared with any 

 worms from the domestic Gruinea-pig, which some authors think 

 (I believe falsely) to be descended from the G. Gobaya. Also 

 three sets from fish ; but as I was very ignorant when I collected 

 them, these perhaps are Lernese or their allies. Should you care 

 to have these specimens, I will give exact locality and date at 

 which they were preserved. 



" Pray believe me, 



" Dear Sir, 



" Yours faithfully, 



" Charles Darwin." 



Having promptly accepted the offer I soon received the sjDeci- 

 mens, with a list of dates, and also of numbers corresponding 

 with others stamped on metallic labels in the bottles referred to. 

 In reference to the parasites from a Gapylara Mr. Darwin, at the 

 same time, corrects a passage in the above-quoted letter, remark- 

 ing thus :~" N.B. I see I made a mistake and spoke in my letter 

 of Gavia Gobaya.^'' 



Although the collection is a very small one, and although 

 shortly after receiving it I gave some account of two of the 

 parasites in papers contributed to the Zoological Society, I have 

 thought that a more complete notice of the collection ought to be 



