and  the  Prevention  of  Rot. 
295 
sheep  in  autumn  and  winter,  and  suggests  that  they  may  have 
lived  in  the  sheep  more  than  a year.  I have  examined  the 
Fig.  17. 
,.'.y 
An  adult  fluke  showing  the  branched  digestive 
tract:  y,  the  oral;  y',  the  ventral  sucker; 
in,  the  branched  intestine.  In  the  centre, 
between  the  two  main  branches  of  the  in- 
testine, lies  the  chief  trunk  of  the  water- 
vessel.  Twice  the  natural  size.  (Original. — 
W.  H.  J.) 
Fig.  18. 
.■■'V 
r\ 
Another  view  of  an  adult  fluke,  showing  the  re- 
productive organs : y , the  oral ; y\  the  ventral 
sucker ; Od,  the  oviduct ; Ov,  the  ovary ; Vt,  the 
vitellarium  or  gland  that  forms  the  granular 
yolk-cells  surrounding  the  embryo  in  the  egg ; 
Te , the  anterior ; Te\  the  posterior  testis ; their 
ducts  run  forwards.  The  generative  opening  is 
in  front  of  the  ventral  sucker.  Twice  the 
natural  size.  (Original. — W.  H.  J.) 
droppings  of  sheep  in  June,  sent  by  the  kindness  of  a veterinary 
surgeon,  which  were  asserted  to  contain  dead  flukes,  but  the 
so-called  flukes  proved  on  microscopic  examination  to  be  masses 
of  discoloured  mucus.  From  my  own  observations  I am  able  to 
say  that  the  flukes  do  not  always  pass  out  from  the  sheep  in  the 
summer  time.  There  is  no  time  of  the  year  when  sheep-livers, 
containing  flukes  which  are  clearly  several  months  old,  cannot 
be  obtained.  In  a former  Report  * a case  was  described  in 
which  the  flukes  within  a sheep  were  proved  to  have  lived  for 
a longer  period  than  one  year.  The  animal  took  the  rot  in 
* ‘Journal  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society,’  1881,  p.  26. 
