PASCIOLA HEPATICA. 177 



and Dupuy upwards of 1000 specimens. Even the occurrence of 

 large numbers only destroys the animal by slow degrees, and, pos- 

 sibly, without producing much physical suffering, excepting, per- 

 haps, in the later stages. Associated with the above-described 

 appearances, one also not unfrequently finds a few flukes in the 

 intestinal canal, whilst a still more interesting pathological feature 

 is seen in the fact that the bile contained in the hver ducts is 

 loaded with flukes' eggs. In some cases there cannot be less than 

 tens or even hundreds of thousands. J^ot a few may also be found 

 in the intestinal canal, and in the excreta about to be voided. 

 Occasionally dead specimens become surrounded by inspissated 

 bile, and gritty particles deposited in the hver ducts ; thus 

 forming the nuclei of gall stones. Mr. Simonds mentions a 

 remarkable instance, " where the concretion was as large as an 

 ordinary hen's egg, and when broken up was found to contain about 

 a dozen dead flukes. It was lying in a pouch-like cavity of one of 

 the bihary ducts."* Lastly, it need scarcely be added that it is by 

 no means unfrequent to find one or even several other kinds of 

 entozoa co-existing with the Fasciola in the same sheep, the most 

 common form being that of the larval Echinococcus. 



Treatment. — No one doubts that "prevention is better than 

 cure," and as in the present state of our knowledge we are in a 

 position to offer many suggestions, which, if properly carried out, 

 cannot fail to be of service in checking the fluke malady, it is, in 

 the first instance, desirable to make a few remarks on this head. 

 Moisture being essential to the growth and development of the 

 fluke-larvse, it is clear that sheep cannot be infected so long as they 

 remain on high and dry grounds, and even in low pastures they 

 can scarcely take the disease so long as they are folded, and fed 

 on hay, turnips, and fodder procured from drier situations. At 



* In this place one naturally calls to mind the statements of Mr. Garner, who asserts 

 that he has found solitary examples of dead distomata forming the nuclei of pearls, in 

 our common river mussel ; a Continental observer has noticed the same thing. See 

 " Eeports of the Cambridge Meeting of the British Association for 1862." 



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