394 Recent Discoveries in Entozoology. 



else, probably, are the conditions for the development or, rather, 

 the transportation of the echinococci, so favourable as in that 

 country. The dog being not only of far greater importance 

 to the Icelander than he is to us, is, consequently, much more 

 generally kept. Another circumstance, also, must be held to 

 weigh very heavily, namely, that almost everybody in Iceland 

 keeps his own stock of cattle, and lives, during the long winter 

 nights, with the entire living stock, usually huddled together 

 in a very small space. Moreover, that cleanliness which we 

 know to be one of the most important preservatives against 

 infection, is but too often wanting in those parts." (Jahrb. 

 s. 654.) 



In reference to the same subject, Dr. Cobbold, in his paper 

 partly read at the Cambridge meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion in 1862, and afterwards more fully communicated to the 

 Zoological Society,* writes as follows : — 



"My friend Dr. Leared has ingeniously suggested that 

 every dog should be efficiently physicked at a certain given 

 time, and that all the excreta, tapeworms included, should be 

 buried at a considerable depth in the soil. The experiment 

 should be extended over several seasons. The mature Tcenice 

 thus destroyed would, it is conceived, cut off the supply of 

 embryos and Echinococci, and the endemic might thus be 

 averted. To this suggestion I would add, that in place of bury- 

 ing the excreta, they should, in all cases, be burnt. If tins 

 latter suggestion be not carried out, it is more than probable 

 that multitudes of the minute embryos will escape destruction, 

 and ultimately find their way into the human body. I have 

 previously urged this preventive measure (in my paper ' on 

 the Sclerostoma causing the gape-disease of fowls/ published in 

 the Proceedings of the Linnean Society for 1861), with the view 

 of lessening the prevalence of other entozoa, both of man and 

 animals, and I again invite attention to the importance of 

 observing this rule. All entozoa which are not preserved for 

 scientific investigation or experiment should be thoroughly de- 

 stroyed by fire, when practicable, and tmder no circumstances 

 whatever should they be thrown aside as harmless refuse. In 

 the case of the Taenia echinococcus, the greatest difficulty likely 

 to bo experienced lies in the fact of the extreme sinallness of 

 this tapeworm. As an additional security, therefore, I would 

 recommend that boiling hot water be occasionally thrown over 

 the floor of ail kennels where dogs are kept, for, in this way, 

 not only the escaped tapeworms, but also the little free 

 embryos themselves would be effectually destroyed." 



* "Remarks on all IhcHuman Entozoa." By T. Spencer Cobbold, M.D., F.L.S., 

 Lecturer on Compt. Anat. at tlie Middlesex Hospital. — Proceed. Zool. Soc. for 

 18C2 j vol. xxx., purl iii., pp. 288—315. 



