Remarks on Dracunculus. 367 



found in pairs, they would appear to be hermaphrodite — a 

 conclusion to which I felt inclined from my own observa- 

 tions. 



Dr. Duncan next remarked the tail of the young to con- 

 sist of a fine sting-like extremity, which they can fix to any 

 opaque object, and if appropriate to their nature they can 

 work themselves into it, thus affording, he remarks, an easy 

 solution of the opinion of Mr. Clot, and others, that attendants 

 on patients, and dogs moving about them, get the disease. 



Dr. Duncan also conceives that when the time arrives for 

 producing its young, the worm exerts itself to get out of its 

 nidus, which also corresponds with the opinions already 

 stated. 



Dr. Duncan however found that when the young are dis- 

 charged into a glass of water, they may be seen swimming 

 about in it ; but he has omitted to say how long the young 

 live in water. The old, he says, live for six days in this ele- 

 ment, but he has never known any survive a fortnight. 



After becoming dry, Dr. Duncan regarded the young as 

 dead, but it does not appear that he made any attempt to 

 resuscitate them by moisture — a very important point con- 

 nected with the elucidation of the disease, on which we are 

 desirous of seeing further experiments made, our own having 

 been confined to a single observation. Dr. Duncan found 

 the young very plentiful in the abcesses which form after 

 breaking the worm, but never found any alive, or at least so 

 lively as in other circumstances ; but here also they may 

 only have remained in a torpid state, particularly as no at- 

 tempts were made to restore them. Dr. Duncan's paper is 

 the most workmanlike and useful, both in a scientific and 

 practical point of view, we have seen on the subject. The 

 district in which he observed the disease, is composed of 

 trap rocks, and the soil and pools abound in the rains with 

 a worm smaller and more slender than the Nahroo, or Dra- 

 cunculus, but otherwise exceedingly like that species. Here 



