DAOTYLIUS ACULEATUS. 403 



CHAPTER II. 



DACTTLIUS ACULEATUS. 



Probable identity of Dactylius acuhatus witb Enchytrcsus albidus — The so-called Spiroptera 

 hominis referable to Filaria piscium — The Diplosoma crenatum or concrementa lym- 

 phatica artificially prepared from the ovisaces of the cod and haddock — Gordius 

 aquaticus not a human helminth — Other spurious parasites — Various foreign bodies 

 mistaken for Entozoa — -Hope's list of insects and their larvae reputed to have come 

 from the human body — Bots received from Dr. Kirk. 



I HEEB undertake, in the first place, to consider yery briefly those 

 so-called "worms, or pseudelminths, whicli cannot, in any legitimate 

 sense, be recorded as human parasites. Some of them, it is true, 

 are positively stated to have come from the human body, along with 

 its natural excrementa ; but we have abundant evidence to prove, 

 at least, in many instances, that this could not have been the case. 

 In this same category I shall include various miscellaneous sub- 

 stances which do not even belong to the animal kingdom. In the 

 second and last place I shall add a list of those "bots" and other 

 insect larvee, many of which have undoubtedly become parasitic 

 within the human body, whilst others of them have, as it were, 

 gained accidental admittance into the intestinal canal. Not a 

 few, apparently, have been purposely added to the excrementa 

 with a view to deception. 



1. Dactylius aoulbatus. 



D. aculeatus. Curling. 

 FmchytroBus albidus, Henle. 



