178 ENTOZOA. 



farmers' meetings I have endeavoured to enforce the expediency 

 of these plans, but, as Mr. Simonds himself has very truly observed, 

 every man depends rather upon his own " preconceived notions of 

 the disease than on any precise scientific information of its 

 natm^e ;" and so it happens that one resumes one's seat with the 

 feeling that, so far as entozoological science is concerned, men 

 appreciate " darkness] rather than light." This language may 

 appear harsh, but it is, nevertheless, true. To a certain extent, 

 and partly from other considerations, it must be admitted that 

 some few enlightened agriculturists have adopted those very plans 

 w^hich science pronounces to be correct, and they have, in the end, 

 been amply rewarded for their judicious discernment. 



As regards the human body, it is obvious that we can only be- 

 come infested by flukes in one or other of two ways. In their 

 highest larval condition, the parasites either penetrate the skin 

 directly from without, or they are carried into the stomach along 

 with our food, out of which latter viscus they grope their way into 

 the liver. It is highly probable that both these methods of inva- 

 sion are adopted. In the first case, it is clear that the free larvse 

 will have been obtained from water used to bathe the person, or 

 from the naked skin being exposed to the surface of moist grass or 

 herbage wherein the larvae or their moUuscan hosts abound. In the 

 second case, they will have been obtained by the individual's having 

 partaken of watercresses, or other field-herbs, in a fresh or unwashen 

 state. Even celery and other market-garden vegetables may har- 

 bour the fluke-larvae, especially in cases where such gardens have 

 been watered by the contents of weedy ponds and stagnant ditches. 

 As other parasites may be conveyed to us in the same way, it behoves 

 all parties concerned in the sale and preparation of vegetable food 

 to subject such matters, in every case, to a thorough douche with 

 clean pump or reservoir water. Only after this simple cleansing 

 can the aforesaid vegetable products be declared free from trema- 

 tode and other helminthic larvae. It is a noteworthy circumstance 

 that most, if not all, of the cases of Fasciola hepaMca infesting the 



