548 
SUPER-FCETATION IN THE SHEEP. 
reared several of these tape-worms, and have in our keeping 
specimens of the Tania coemiras, which vary from five days 
to two months of age. 
Experiments in the contrary direction, id est, the exhibi- 
tion of the matured ova of the tape-worm to sheep, have 
shown that about two months are required for the develop- 
ment of the hydatid, or hydatids, as the case may be, in the 
brain to an extent sufficient for the animal to give indications 
of “ gid.” It is evident from these facts that the lambs in 
question must have received the tape-worm eggs when not 
more than two to three months of age ; and it becomes an 
important question as to where they were then located, and 
how managed from very early life. Had dogs of any kind 
free access to the fields on which the lambs were at pasture '{ 
Does their owner rear or keep sporting dogs, or is the 
shepherd’s dog infested with tape- worms ? These are matters 
to be inquired into for preventing a recurrence of the evil. 
To cure it is out of the question. 
SUPER-FCETATION IN THE SHEEP. 
We are indebted to Mr. John Casewell, M.R.C.V.S., Wem, 
Shropshire, for the particulars of a case of lambing, which 
certainly goes a long way to prove that super-foetation occa- 
sionally occurs in the sheep. Mr. Casewell writes as follows : 
— “ One of my clients has a ewe which brought forth a lamb 
on the 18th or 14th of March last, and on the 19th of June 
she gave birth to another. Both lambs are alive, healthy, 
and perfectly formed. The owner of the ewe says that no 
ram has been with the flock since February 27th, and he 
thinks she must have taken the ram while in lamb.” 
It is fair to infer from this account that the lamb wdiich 
was born in March had been carried the full period of utero- 
gestation — twenty-two weeks — Avhich would place the first 
impregnation in the middle of October, 1870. Assuming the 
same thing with regard to the second lamb, born June 80th, 
the second impregnation would occur at the end of January, 
or about six weeks previously to the birth of the first lamb, 
and a month before the removal of the ram from the flock. 
We believe that no delay in the bursting of the ova-sac 
subsequently to coition will account for these facts, and that 
they do not admit of any satisfactory explanation, except on 
the principle that super-foetation did absolutely take place in 
this particular instance. Speaking physiologically, and having 
