486 entdzoa. 



these worms had been kept in spirit for some time before examination. 

 This substance is probably lymph thrown out in consequence of irrita- 

 tion, and may be the food of the animal. 



The body of the worm is thickened at its middle, but becomes 

 extremely small towards the head : this contracted part I have called 

 the neck, and it is grasped by the beginning of the canal as by a 

 sphincter muscle. The head is perfectly round in the middle, becoming 

 very quickly smaller towards the neck, and still more so at the [anterior] 

 termination, in the centre of which is a small projection or mouth 

 [uncinated proboscis]. All along the centre of the body is a canal 

 passing from the head to the other extremity, which I take to be 

 intestine 1 ; the upper part as small as a very fine hair, becoming a little 

 larger near to the anus. If this be the intestine, it is, indeed, extremely 

 small; but it is possible that the worms had been starved by the 

 previous death of the animal in whose intestine they lived. The sub- 

 stance between this canal and the skin is cellular and regular in its 

 structure. 



I found worms of the same shape and structure in the intestines of a 

 different species of whale ; but these were not an inch in length [Echi- 

 ■aorhy minis glandiceps], being similar to what were found in the eider- 

 duck [Ech. Undicc], and the resemblance may arise from the whale and 

 duck inhabiting the same seas 2 . 



Of Worms of the Guts. 



In a dog that I opened, I found a great many worms of different 

 sizes, both of the tape 3 - and round 4 -kinds. The large ones were in the 

 jejunum; the small in the ileum. These small ones had the appear- 

 ance of Ascarides. As they were only found in the last intestine, query, 

 are they the young of the tape- and round-worms, and are they making 

 their way against the stream ? or are they formed above, and driven 

 down the stream ? 



1 [Hunt. Preps. Phys. Series, Nos. 413, 414.] 



2 [Mr. Clift notes that: "On the outside cover of the above MS. Hunter had 

 penned the following memorandum : — 



" ' Mr. Home called on Dr. Blagden, to ask the Doctor if the enclosed might be 

 added to the whale-paper now printing; and, if it may with propriety, Mr Hunter 

 wishes the Doctor to send it to the printer.' " .The paper ' On tbe Structure and 

 Economy of Whales,' here referred to, is printed in the Philosophical Transactions, 

 vol. lsxvii. for the year 1787, at which period Dr. Blagden (afterwards Sir Charles 

 Blagden) was Secretary ; but the supplement on the worms in the whale was not 

 printed ; probably from not having been read before the Royal Society.] 



a [Probably the Tisnia serrata, Eud.] 4 [Probably Ascaris marginata, Eud.] 



