1878.] 111 [Hagen. 
which, during or after a severe disease of the bladder and the 
urinary passages, the discharge of some animals gave instantaneous 
relief, and cure followed. I should have believed these cases more im- 
portant, if exactly similar ones of instantaneous relief after a dis- 
charge of larvae from the bowels had not been observed, the larvae 
(Homalomyia) being just the same as those often recorded as dis- 
charged from the bladder. Dr. Howship in his tract (Observations | 
on the diseases of the urinary organs, London, 1816), has published 
very striking cases of this class. 
Last not least, itis important to notice that all the observed cases 
belong to men, none to animals, and that in the numerous dissections 
which have been made the presence of larvae in these organs has 
never been stated, and that as far as I know, no museum possesses 
such larvae, professed to have been found in the bladder. 
There are certain limits, which can not be transgressed without be- 
coming absurdly credulous, in believing facts, which are said to have 
been observed. The bold manner in which Linnaeus has purified 
natural history by throwing out such facts, is certainly one of his 
greatest merits and has greatly advanced natural history. Thathe 
has gone sometimes too far, and that some of the rejected facts have 
later proved true, is comparatively without consequence. I confess, 
that I do not believe that larvae of insects can live in the bladder, and 
that consequently they are not discharged through the urethra — till 
the contrary is proved by indubitable evidence. 
The excellent and well-known works of C. A. Rudolphi and J. G. 
Bremser, contain the literature up to 1819. Nevertheless as the aim 
of both authors is to give a history of the true intestinal worms, all 
others which belong to the so called Pseudohelminthes are treated 
only as a side matter. There exist some works, in which the older 
literature is said to be largely collected. 
J. Schenck von Grafenberg, Observat. medicar. rarior. Libr. vit., 
Francofurti, 1600, (and later Edit.),— Marcellus Donatus, De medica 
historia mirabili. Jiibr. vr. Venetiis, 1597. 4to.—P. Borelli, Histor. 
te observat. medicophysicarum Cent. Iv. Francofurti, 1670, 8° and 
Cent. 1, 1676.— Hercules Saxonia. (title-of the work unknown to 
me) —and W. G. Ploucquet, Initia Bibliothecae medico-practice et 
Chirurgicae realis. Tuebinge, 1793-97. 4°. I am not sorry that I 
am unable to compare these works; perhaps there is no copy of them 
here, as Rudolphi designates them simply as a kind of stuff, of which 
very little is worthy to be studied, and Bateman, Edinb. med. 
