Dept.] 
NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 
26 
after the birth of the child, from the strangulation of a mass of baemorrhoidal 
veins, that have been forced out with the first passages from the bowels, and the 
cause of this phenomena we believe to be the relaxation of the abdominal walls 
at that time existing. Many facts corroborative of this opinion could readily 
be cited. 
Dr. Leidy called the attention of the members to the stomach of a mink {Mus- 
tela vison), containing a large number of worms. The latter had caused much 
thickening of the walls of the stomach, in which the anterior extremity of their 
body deeply penetrated. The worm is a species, heretofore unnoticed, of the 
genus Cheir acanthus. Its name and characters were given as follows : 
Cheiracanthus socialis, Leidy. Body cylindrical, posteriorly obtuse ; anus 
subterminal. Integument transparent, with distinct circular muscles. Head 
discrete, discoidal, furnished with transverse rows of recurved hooks. Mouth 
bilabiate ; oesophagus clavate, red ; intestine dusky brown. Ovaries and ovi- 
ducts, or testes and vasa deferentia, very tortuous and white. Anterior portion 
of the body thickly covered with alternating transverse rows of minute plates, 
of which those most anterior are tridentate, the succeeding ones bidentate, and 
the last ones are simple and gradually become obsolete. Posterior extremity of 
the male attenuated, spirally contorted, and ending in a horse-shoe-like border 
with four red papillae on each side. 
Length of female fifteen lines ; breadth three-fourths of a line ; length of male 
twelve lines, breadth half a line. 
Dr. Woodward stated that a portion of the stomach of the mink was submit- 
ted to him for investigation by Dr. Leidy. The piece presented on the sur- 
face of the mucous membrane several orifices about ^th of an inch in diame- 
ter, which were surrounded by well-marked indurations of the size of a chest- 
nut. On making sections of these indurations it was observed that the orifices 
were the openings of canals penetrating from |- to | of an inch into the tissue, 
winding in various directions ; one orifice sometimes leading to several canals. 
The canals were lined by a reddish pultaceous matter in which blood corpus- 
cles in various stages of disintegration and numerous pus-corpuscles were 
clearly made out. One or two bodies supposed to be ova were also perceived. 
The induration was essentially a new formation of connective tissue in which 
development had proceeded to the stage of nucleated caudate cells with ex- 
tremities much prolonged. It involved the sub-mucous tissue and the superfi- 
cial portion of the muscular coat. 
It is presumed that the new formation is the result of the organization of an 
inflammatory exudation, poured out as the consequence of the disturbance pro- 
duced by the penetration of the worm into the tissue. 
Dk. Mitchell exliibited an ingenious injecting pump, invented by Mr. 
Franklin Peale, of this city. Its valves were in imitation of those in the 
reins of the animal organism. He also exhibited a craniometer, graduated to 
l-50th of an inch, and a spirometer, for measuring lung capacity, much su- 
perior to the one ordinarily used. 
While engaged recently, in preparing various instruments to be used in phy- 
sical examinations of the height, weight, and pulmonary capacity of the men of 
the police force of Philadelphia, Dr. M. was struck with the clumsiness, and, 
in some instances, with the inefficiency of the ordinary spirometer. Its great 
size and cumbrous form, the necessity of using many buckets of water to fill 
it, and the expense of its construction, alike unfit it for common or ready 
use. 
With the aid of his friend, Mr. B. Phillips, and of Mr. Gratz, he has suc- 
ceeded in arranging the ordinary " dry gas metre" so as to adapt it perfectly 
to spirometric use. This beautiful metre is made in vast numbers by Messrs. 
Code, Hopper & Co., of Philadelphia. It is unnecessary to explain the interior 
1858.] 
