320 



ENTOZOA. 



Ascaris mystax. In the mean-wliile, however, it is necessary to 

 glance at the earlier and still more remarkable communication by 

 Dr. Pickells, "where considerable numbers of similar ascarides were 

 obtained from a patient named Mary Riordan, aged twenty-eight 

 years. This case will be found minutely detailed in the fourth 

 and fifth volumes of the " Transactions Qf the Association of Fel- 

 lows and Licentiates of the King and Queen's College of Physi- 

 cians in Ireland." In this instance the first specimen was voided 

 in April, 1822, and on its being submitted to that distinguished 

 naturalist, Dr. J. Y. Thomson, of Cork, that gentleman writes to 

 Dr. Pickells as follows : — " The Ascaris resembles most that which 

 is so common an inhabitant of the stomach of a cat {Ascaris felis), 

 but is rather longer in proportion to its thickness." After an 

 interval of one year and ten months (Feb., 1824), we are told that 

 several were passed at one time ; then, again (Nov., 1825), eleven 

 more, and subsequently (March, 1826), there was another addition 

 of nine, which were thrown up alive. Taken altogether. Dr. 

 Pickells had " seen about fifty of various sizes." These were 

 generally evacuated alive, and, in a majority of instances, 

 without medicine. To use the author's own words, " they came 

 away usually in groups of six or more. I have sometimes," he 

 adds, " found a whole group knit together by the extremities. The 

 common lumbricus {-Ascaris lumbrieoides) was also eliminated in 

 some instances ; one measured upwards of a foot." 



The mention of the presence of Ascaris lumbrieoides is particu- 

 larly important in this case, because some have supposed that Mary 

 Riordan was attempting to impose upon her medical attendants. 

 The case, indeed, is one of singular interest; for this woman 

 not only passed the before-mentioned nematodes, but also an 

 astonishing number of the larvae of Blajps mortisaga, a coleop- 

 terous insect "which inhabits such situations as churchyards." 

 This person had, from superstitious motives, long practised the 

 disgusting habit of drinking water mixed with clay taken from 

 the grave of a clergyman or priest, under the impression that she 



