The Natural History of Parasites. 
607 
tlie attention of agriculturists whose slieep are affected in tliis manner. 
Some farmers — particularly in the county of Suffolk — have found that 
when their lambs are affected with this description of worm they got 
rid of them after a certain time when fed upon green rape, or coleseed, 
which is an excellent food for sheep. He made this statement on the 
authority of observant and trustworthy men in Suffolk, and he could 
well understand that this may be so, because many vegetable agents, 
when taken in theii* crude and natural condition, are known to be 
good anthelmintics. 
He would gladly have extended these remarks further, and treated 
on other entozoa, but as he had stated at the outset, the subject is of 
too comprehensive a character to be dealt vAfh. in the limits of a single 
lecture. He had, therefore, been able to do little more than allude to 
some of the more prominent of these destructive creatures, so as to 
lay the basis for a paper on the subject in a fut^^xe number of the 
Society's Journal. 
Lord Berxers, in proposing a vote of thanks to the Professor for 
liis able and interesting lecture, wished to ask the learned gentleman 
how, in the case of the tape- worm which promotes a cutaneous disease 
in a dog, the existence of the worm is to be ascertained, and what are 
the best means of destroying it '? And also whether there is an 
affinity between the filaria bronchiaHs,which is so destructive to lambs, 
and the worm which causes the gapes in fowls and young pheasants ? 
For the destruction of the latter worms he had recommended, 
and had occasionally used, a little turpentine, which he applied on 
the tip of a feather, vrith some success ; but this remedy was not to 
be trusted in the hands of the persons who reared his fowls, and had 
accordingly been discontinued. 
Professor Simonds replied that the worm which produced the 
cutaneous eruption in a dog was often the tape-worm. Now tape- 
worms might exist in the intestines of all animals ; and the best evi- 
dence of their presence perhaps was to be foimd in their detaching the 
posterior segments of their bodies and these being voided vdih the 
feculent matter of the animal. It is an interesting fact that these 
segments contain the perfected ova of the creature, and these ova, if 
they are accidentally conveyed, with the food or otherwise, into the 
system of sheep, especially yoimg sheep, are very speedily developed 
into hydatids. In fact hydatids in the brain of the sheep may be 
produced ad lihihim by simply giving these segments with the animal's 
food. To show the powers of endurance of the tape-worm against the 
agents which are administered for their expulsion, he would mention the 
particulars relating to one of the worms he had had by him for the 
last thirty years. Being desirous of killing a dog for the pui-poses of 
science he tried to poison it by prussic acid ; but the prussic acid 
which he purchased in a country town was not very good, and the first 
dose failed to destroy the jioor creature. He then gave him a larger 
dose with the like result, and at List he had to kill him by other 
means. When opened it was found that the prussic acid had com- 
pletely denuded the intestines ; nevertheless, there was the tape-worm 
still alive and crawling about ! 
VOL. XXIV. 2 R 
