295 
0)i Certain Cystic Worms , dec. By G. M. Giles. 
matter of uncertainty, but, in all probability, they must be the progeny 
of some baematozoon, whose habitat must be either the portal vein 
or hepatic artery, the absence of a more general infection excluding 
the idea of an aortic habitat, while most certainly no haematozoa were 
present in the heart in either case. Such being the case, the adult 
must probably be a filarian, possibily a strongyle. 
Although never previously recorded from India, what was doubt- 
less a nematode tuberculosis of the equine liver has been described 
by Gr. Colin and Reynal.* Oreste and Ercolani f attributed them 
to the lodgment of the ova of distomata, their nematode nature being 
first made out by Mazzanti | in 1890. 
As far back as 1876 Sonsino found free nematodes in the blood 
of horses in Egypt, but such a species, if lodged in the capillaries, 
CDuld hardly fail to set up a general infection, and not that of a 
special organ. 
A possible parent of the embryos may be found in Filaria 
papillosa, a few individuals of which were found in the peritoneal 
cavity of each of the animals in which this condition was present. 
Mazzanti, it is true, specifies that the embryos contained in the 
nodules he describes were different from those of F. papillosa, but, 
as we are quite ignorant of the complete life-history of that parasite, 
his specimens for comparison could have hardly been derived from 
any other source than the body of the adult female, and the embryos 
would alter so rapidly when encysted in new surroundings, that I 
doubt if such a comparison affords just grounds for any conclusions 
whatever. 
This worm, it must be remembered, burrows its way into all sorts 
of odd situations, the eye and brain, e. g., so that there would be 
nothing extraordinary in its finding its way into the portal vein, 
hepatic artery, or any other vessel. 
Another possible source of infection is Sclerostomum equinum , 
whose worm-aneurisms were present in, at any rate, one of the cases 
in question. I am aware that the inhabitants of these aneurisms are 
generally considered to be always immature. I have met with some, 
however, containing tolerably well developed ova, and, though 
perhaps improbable, it is by no means impossible that they may 
occasionally reach maturity in this situation. These aneurisms do 
not always occlude the vessels in whose course they lie, and, as they 
are not uncommon on the hepatic artery, a female discharging 
her eggs in this situation would readily bring about an infection 
exactly similar to that under discussion. 
Failing these sources of infection, we are reduced to the assump- 
* Reynal, art. Foie, Nouv. diet. prat, de med., de chir. et d’hyg. veter., vii. (1862) 
p. 205. 
t Fide L. G. Neumann, ‘ Traite des Maladies Parasitaires non microbiennes des 
animaux domestiques,’ Paris, 1892, p. 487. 
X Mazzanti, “ Contributo all’etiologia dei noduli epatici del cavallo,” ‘II 
Modern*) Zooiatro,’ i. ( 1 890) p. 145. 
