122 ENTOZOA. 



From Eose's careful description it would seem impossible to 

 deny that we here have to deal with a genuine Coenurus ; never- 

 theless, as I have said, the accuracy of his conclusions has been 

 doubted. Guided by the light of modern discovery, the only ob- 

 jections which can reasonably be made to the inferences drawn by 

 Rose are such as have reference to the structure and functions of 

 the different parts of the hydatid. Thus the terms " pregnant" 

 and " gestation" are inapplicable, seeing that the young scolices 

 are developed by the now well-understood non-sexual process of 

 budding. In a second communication on the same subject (" Lon- 

 don Medical Gazette," 1844, vol. xxxiv., p. 626), Eose described 

 another example of the same kind of hydatid, but he still refrained 

 from giving the entozoon a distinctive name. Curiously enough, 

 however, the author, who has obligingly forwarded me a drawing 

 of the parasite, which enables me to speak very positively as to its 

 distinctiveness, had named it Goenurus cuniculi in his MS. notes 

 of one of the original dissections. The illustration in my posses- 

 sion bears a close resemblance to other specimens of Goenurus (at 

 present undescribed) which I have in my collection, and which were 

 obtained from an American Squirrel. So far as my observations 

 have been carried, I have little doubt that Eose's Coenm-us from 

 the rabbit and my Coenurus from the Lemur are the larval repre- 

 sentatives of two totally distinct species of Taenia. As regards the 

 third form (from the Squirrel) I cannot speak with equal confi- 

 dence, but I hope ere long to solve the problem. "When Leuckart 

 spoke of my lemurine Coenurus as a parasite of considerable interest, 

 it is probable that he had no knowledge of Eose's early discovery 

 respecting the existence of a similar larval type in the rabbit.* 



* See his " Bericht," in Wiegman's " Aroliiv" for 1860, p. 139. In this admirable 

 resume, however, Lenokart mentions the case of BaiUet, who more lately found a Coemi- 

 ras embedded in the pectoral muscle of a rabbit, and he also refers to the statements of 

 Eichler, who has recorded the occurrence of a Coenurus in the subcutaneous cellular 

 tissue of a sheep. In Eichler's case the hydatid was about the size of a goose egg, and 

 displayed nearly 2000 heads. I should think it rather unlikely that these polycepha- 

 lous larvae could be referred to the so-called Coenurus cerehralis. — T. S. C. 



