Remarks on Dracunculus. 365 



occasions an irritation, and eventually protrudes, to a na- 

 tural function connected with the distribution of the young. 



It does not appear that these animals multiply in the 

 body to such extent as the vast number of young which 

 they contain would lead us to suppose them capable. In- 

 deed, considering the pain and irritation which a single 

 individual is capable of producing, we cannot suppose that 

 the powers of human life could long survive many of them. 

 What then becomes of the millions of young which a single 

 adult is capable of producing ? To let them loose in the 

 unfortunate body which the parent parasite itself inhabits, 

 would be contrary to the ordinary economy we observe in 

 Nature for the preservation and distribution of the young ; 

 such a multitudinous brood would rapidly destroy the animal 

 on whose life their own would depend. We are therefore 

 rather inclined to the belief, that when the parent worm is 

 prepared to dismiss the young brood, it irritates the skin by 

 means of the sharp point of the tail, and thus causes a pus- 

 tule through which the point of the tail passes, and the 

 young are allowed to escape externally with the discharge. 



Our observations on the young themselves may afford a 

 clue to their future progress, and to the cause of the disease. 

 A drop of the milky substance in which they were contain- 

 ed having been submitted to the microscope, the young were 

 seen in full enjoyment of life and energy. Two or three drops 

 of water were then added, when a few of the young which 

 extricated themselves from the mucous, and entered the water 

 soon died, the others continued to evince signs of life as 

 long as the proper secretion in which they were enveloped 

 remained sufficiently soft to admit of their motions being 

 perceptible, which was for two hours after they had been 

 taken from the parent. They were then left on a glass 

 under the microscope, and 24 hours after, the mucous 

 being perfectly dry on the glass, they were then moistened 

 with tepid water, when several of the young were again 



