170 ENTOZOA. 



disease, and two days afterwards was a corpse."* Tliis case is 

 liiglily instructive, and wlien taken in connection with, the well- 

 known fact that animals affected with the disease putrify very 

 rapidly, it clearly points to the necessity of removing slaughter- 

 houses far away from densely populated localities. 



But, as remarked in the outset of this article, the Fasciola 

 hepatica has also been several times known to gain access to the 

 human body. Altogether — excepting the instances mentioned 

 by Chabert, which I regard as spurious — some fifteen instances 

 have been recorded, but in Leuckart's opinion five only are certain, 

 four others being considered probable. A careful record of these 

 instances is given by Davaine in his elaborate work, along with 

 other cases which must for ever remain doubtful, f The satis- 

 factory instances are those recorded by Duval, Frank, Partridge, 

 Giesker, and Dionis ; the scarcely less probable ones being those 

 noticed by Pallas, Fontassin, Harris, and Fox.| In my opinion, 

 the two last-named cases are entirely satisfactory, and it is, at 

 least, quite ' certain that the flukes transmitted by these gentle- 

 men to Professors Busk and Owen could be referred to no other 

 species of distome. The cases recorded by Brera and Treutler 

 are doubtful, whilst that of Mehlis is regarded as altogether 

 fictitious. A more probable instance is the one described by 

 Biermer and Lambl, in the " Prager Yierteljahrschrift," for 1849. 

 The cases of Borel, Bidloo, and Malpighi also rest on insufficient 

 data. On the whole, however, it is quite evident that this 

 parasite is liable to invade man, and there cannot be a shadow 

 of doubt that instances have occurred where its presence has 

 been overlooked, and therefore unrecorded. The rarity of its 

 occurrence, however, is sufficiently explained by the circumstance, 

 that man in a civilized condition can seldom have occasion, either 



* See Simonds, in the Bibliography. ^ 



t " Traite des Entozoaires," p. 251, et seq. See also Leuckart's work, p. 576. 



X To these may also be added the case recently recorded by Dr. H. V. Carter in the 

 "Bombay Medical and Physical Society's Transactions," for 1862.— See Bibliography. 



