116 The Common Liver Entozoon of Cattle. 



The general reader and the accomplished scholar are 

 probably little aware of the extreme difficulties which attend 

 experimental investigations into the modes of reproduction 

 found to obtain in entozoic life, and yet it is by these artificial 

 means alone that practical science can successfully carry out its 

 benevolent purposes. If conducted properly, the necessary 

 experiments not only require time and the sacrifice of personal 

 interests; but, in addition, a special supply of funds for the 

 purchase of the larger animals to be operated on. In this 

 country, such grants from governmental sources are not usually 

 entertained, but on the continent — in that despised little king- 

 dom of Saxony, for example — we find a ready hand tendered to 

 the indefatigable cultivators of helminthological inquiry. One 

 of the foremost of these is Dr. Frederick Kuchenmeister, of 

 Zittau, who, in the preface to his well-known work ou human 

 parasites, says, "The animals employed in experiments by 

 myself, and at my own cost, were rabbits, cats, dogs, and a few 

 sheep. The greater number of the pigs and sheep thus 

 bestowed were procured at the expense of the Saxon ministry 

 of the interior, by Professor Haubner, of the Veterinary School 

 at Dresden; a considerable number of sheep being also 

 provided at the expense of the Agricultural Society of Saxon 

 Lusatia, and by the kindness of individual landowners/'' 



In England the Royal Society and the British Association, 

 following the example of the Parisian Academy of Sciences, 

 have frequently devoted small sums to private investigators and 

 dredging committees, for the judicious purpose of forwarding 

 researches of a more or less purely scientific character ; and it 

 would be gratifying to hear that other public bodies had volun- 

 teered similar assistance to independent workers whose pursuits 

 embrace more practical aims, and whose discoveries could not 

 fail to benefit the community at large. The subject matter 

 under consideration is one of those in which much still remains 

 to be accomplished; but, before pointing out the special require- 

 ments of the case, the writer requests attention to the follow- 

 ing ascertained facts respecting the structure and habits of the 

 common liver fluke of sheep and cattle. 



This entozoon has been known from the earliest times, and 

 the animal may almost be said to have acquired a literature of 

 its own. However, as regards the obscure opinions formerly 

 entertained concerning it, little, perhaps, need be said; but 

 those who may desire a list of references are invited to consult 

 the author's Synopsis of the Distomidce, quoted on a former 

 occasion. 



The scientific names of this parasite involve a question of 

 some importance. Amongst naturalists gmerally it is continu- 

 ally spoken of under the combined generic and specific titles 



