nEACUNCUI-US MEDINENSIS. 375 



To give a brief outline of the subject, in its entirety, is the object 

 of the following pages : — ■ 



30. Deacunculus medinensis. 



Dracuumdus, Lister ; Gallandatus ; Carter. 



D. persarum, Kampfer ; Diesing. 



Filaria medinensis, Gmelin ; Olfers ; Rudolphi ; etc. 



F. dracunculus, Bremser ; McClelland ; Pruner. 



Furia medinensis, Modeer. 



Gordius medinensis, Linjieus ; Bruguiere. 



Vermis medinensis, Grundler. 



General and Specific Characters. — A nematode helmintli, the female only at present 

 known, measuring from one to six, or even (according to Gallandatus) twelve feet in 

 length, and about yo °f ^^ inch in thickness ; body uniformly cylindrical, terminating 

 inferiorly in a more or less curved or reversed muoronate tail ; head somewhat truncate 

 or flatly convex, with a central, simple, oral cavity, surrounded by four equidistant, cru- 

 cially-disposed papillffi ; mode of reproduction viviparous, the numerous young invested 

 by the uterine walls, almost filhng up the entire cavity of the body. 



If any man will abandon his preconceived notions, and take 

 the trouble to read Kiichenmeister's historical narrative of the 

 Dracunculus (as it is given in Lankester's edition of the well-known 

 "Manual of Parasites"), he will, I apprehend, find it very difficult 

 to resist the conclusion that Moses was the first writer on this 

 subject ; and further, he will be well nigh necessitated to believe 

 that the " fiery serpents" which afflicted " the children of Israel 

 during their stay in the neighbourhood of the Red Sea" were 

 neither more nor less than specimens of our Bracvmculus medi- 

 nensis. At all events, if he doubt this, he will have little hesita- 

 tion in believing that Plutarch describes the Dracunculi, when in 

 the eighth book of his " Symposiacon" he quotes Agatharchidas as 

 stating " that the people taken ill on the Eed Sea suffered from 

 many strange and unheard-of attacks, amongst other worms (from) 

 little snakes, (Sgaxdvna /*«§»), which came out upon them, gnawed 

 away their legs and arms, and when touched retracted, coiled them- 

 selves up in the muscles, and there gave rise to the most insup- 



