320 
MR.  R.  OWEN'S  DESCRIPTION  OF  A  MICROSCOPIC  ENTOZOON 
enlarged  and  fatty.  The  mucous  membrane  of  the  small  intestines  was  ulcerated  to  a 
great  extent." 
About  a  fortnight  after  the  dissection  of  the  above  subject,  a  second  was  brought 
into  the  rooms,  similarly  affected ;  respecting  which  Mr.  Paget,  who  first  noticed  the 
parasites  in  the  Italian,  has  favoured  me  with  the  following  note. 
"  The  second  body  was  that  of  a  poor  Irishwoman,  who  had  been  in  Mr.  Lawrence's 
ward  for  six  weeks.  She  had  died  in  a  state  of  extreme  emaciation,  produced  by  a  large 
sloughing  ulcer  just  below  the  knee,  by  which  a  considerable  portion  of  the  head  of  the 
tibia  had  been  exposed.  She  had  had  occasional  severe  diarrhoea,  and  obstinate  vo- 
miting." 
As  regards  the  seat  of  the  Trichince,  they  occur  in  all  the  voluntary  muscles,  and  in 
those  which  have  been  termed  semi-voluntary  or  respiratory,  as  the  diaphragm.  My 
friend  Mr.  Wormald  examined  and  detected  them  in  the  minute  muscles  of  the  tym- 
panum ;  as  many  as  twenty-five  were  lodged  in  the  tensor  tymjjani.  I  could  perceive 
no  trace  of  them  in  portions  of  the  muscular  coat  of  the  small  or  large  intestines, 
neither  could  I  detect  any  in  the  detrusor  urines  or  in  the  substance  of  the  heart. 
A  portion  of  the  muscle  of  the  first  subject  which  was  sent  to  me  being  in  a  state  of 
incipient  putrescence,  I  preserved  it  in  spirit  of  wine  for  three  days  before  examining 
it ;  yet  after  macerating  a  small  portion  in  water,  and  separating  the  cysts,  the  worms 
when  pressed  out  continued,  to  my  surprise,  to  exhibit  motions,  which,  though  languid, 
were  sufficiently  evident,  tightening  and  dilating  their  coils.  I  suppose  that,  being  buried 
in  the  flesh  and  defended  by  the  dense  exterior  cyst,  the  spirit  had  not  penetrated  so  as 
to  act  sufficiently  upon  them  to  destroy  their  vitality ;  for  on  adding  a  drop  of  alcohol 
to  the  expressed  worms,  and  afterwards  moistening  them  with  water,  the  motions  of 
coiling  and  uncoiling  ceased.  More  languid  motions  than  those  above  described  were 
afterwards  noticed  by  Mr.  Wormald  and  myself  in  some  specimens  that  were  examined 
a  fortnight  after  the  death  of  the  subject  infested  by  them :  but  it  is  difficult  whether  to 
refer  these  to  hygrometrical  influence  or  to  irritability. 
The  tenacity  of  life  or  irritability  manifested  by  these  low-organized  Invertebrata, 
has  attracted  the  attention  of  almost  every  entozoologist.  Rudolphi  especially  takes 
notice  of  the  power  which  the  Entozoa  possess  of  resisting  the  deadly  effect  of  ardent 
spirits  ^  and  relates  many  other  singular  instances  of  their  tenacity  of  life,  of  which  not 
the  least  remarkable  is  that  which  is  manifested  by  the  Filaria  Capsularia  before  referred 
to.  When  the  hard-frozen  herrings  which  are  sent  packed  up  in  ice  to  Berlin  are 
thawed  for  use,  these  Filaria  or  Capsularia  revive  and  exhibit  lively  motions 2.  The 
same  remarkable  property  is  occasionally  forced  upon  the  notice  of  individuals  not 
'  Synopsis  Entozoorum,  p.  595. 
*  "  In  Harengas  congelatas  rigidas  et  glacie  textas  frigida  afFusa  reviviscere  viderim."— Hist.  Entoz.,  torn.  ii. 
p.  62. 
