356 ENTOZOA IN RELATION TO PUBLIC HEALTIL, ETC. 
render the draught turbid nor reveal the presence of the 
germs to the naked eye. Bearing these facts in mind, it is 
some relief to see by the report of the Metropolitan Board 
of Works, published in to-day's Times (January 21, 1871), 
that the Essex Reclamation Society's proposition to utilise 
the daily supply of 270,000 tons of London sewage by the 
irrigation system is not likely to be carried out. At all 
events, the Board will neither advance money, nor afford 
the Company support of any kind. 
In regard to the possible introduction of the little blood- 
fluke (now commonly known under the generic title Bilharzia , 
which I first gave to it), a few words of explanation will 
naturally be looked for. Whilst many have ventured to 
criticise unsparingly the warnings contained in my brochure 
already alluded to, others, like Dr. Letheby, have not failed 
to give more consideration to my statements. Any careful 
reader of the pamphlet, however, will perceive that I never 
asserted that the Bilharzia disease was sure to be propagated 
amongst us; but I did state that, in view of a much larger 
amount of egg-dispersion by means of sewage irrigation, it 
was by no means improbable that the African malady might 
become naturalised in this country. By the data then in my 
possession, I was perfectly justified in taking up this posi- 
tion; but, since the time referred to, and only very recently, 
I have had ample opportunity of personally studying the 
disease as it occurred, and still exists to a less marked extent, 
in a little girl who has come from Natal, South Africa, to be 
placed under my professional care. The details of this case 
I reserve for publication elsewhere; but the Association will 
readily gather its importance in relation to the irrigation 
question when I state my belief that, for months past, this 
patient has daily given off with the urine at least 10,000 eggs 
of Bilharzia hcematobia. When first placed under my care, 
the consequent haematuria was both frequent and excessive ; 
but, not to dwell on medical details, the only other point I 
care to insist upon just now relates to the degree of larval 
development hitherto noticed by observers abroad, and by 
Dr. John Harley in this country. I am happy to say that I 
have been able to watch the embryonal stage of growth to a 
somewhat further degree of development than has hitherto 
been witnessed by any other observer ; yet much remains to 
be accomplished before our knowledge of the entire genetic 
relations of this remarkable parasite will enable us to clear up 
some of the important practical questions raised by myself 
in this connection. I may add that, although I have vainly 
sought by experiment to rear the higher larval stages of this 
