DEACUNCULUS MEDINENSIS. 385 



ccecal or terminal portion of the intestine to be partially reflected 

 upon itself. In regard to the circular opening which Robin and 

 myself described as the anus, Bastian says there is a rounded body 

 " about 2W^" in diameter, with a dark or light spot in the centre, 

 according to the varying focal distance, and which seems to repre- 

 sent a central aperture. Sometimes, above this, traces of two or 

 three large cells may be recognized, whilst, behind, nothing definite 

 can be made out, save that the cavity of the body is visible for 

 about ^". In other specimens of the young worm the central 

 body and spot are wanting, but, in its stead, two lateral sacculi 

 are met with, about ^m' in diameter, that communicate with the 

 exterior by a minute channel through the integuments, which can 

 sometimes be distinctly recognized. At other times the channel 

 is obscured by protrusion, which appears to have taken place 

 through it, of a minute bilobed papilla, projecting jo^" from the side 

 of the body. When the projections are seen, the sacculi are 

 indistinct." It were a waste of time to enter into speculations in 

 reference to these minute organs, the nature of which will, doubt- 

 less, by and by, be thoroughly investigated. As Bastian found the 

 young in all stages of development, from the germ condition ^' in 

 diameter up to perfect embryo, and as, moreover, he, like others 

 long before him, could detect no sexual orifice in the adult Dracun- 

 culus, he has even stated his belief that the young are produced by 

 a non-sexual process of development, and consequently, also, calls 

 these germs *' pseudova." I cannot, of course, for obvious reasons, 

 share in this opinion ; and I must now, moreover, quit this portion 

 of my subject, hoping to be able in my concluding summary to 

 introduce a number of interesting facts and surmises, for the details 

 of which I cannot, in consonance with the scope and object of this 

 work, here find sufficient space. 



Treatment. — Every Oriental traveller is more or less familiar 

 with the time-honoured methods employed in the process of 

 extracting the adult Guinea-worm. Volumes, as we have seen, 

 have been written on all the more important practical bearings of 



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