HELMINTHES. 
617 
males and females united at a raucli earlier stage of their develop- 
ment. In one case the young female, far from being the com- 
paratively gigantic creature which she afterwards becomes, was 
actually shorter, though thicker, than the male, being only of 
an inch from one end to the other 
Harley, J. On the endemic Hfematuria of the Cape of Good 
Hope (caused by the Distoma haematohium) . Medico-Chi- 
rurgical Transactions, vol. xvii. Head Jan. 26, 1864. (18 
pages with 2 plates.) 
Apart from its purely professional claims, this communication 
has an especial interest for the helminthologist. The author 
is undoubtedly entitled to the credit of having been the first to 
discover the presence of the eggs of Distoma hamatohium in the 
urine of persons resident in this country, and he has also been 
the first to point out the parasitic origin of the haematuria 
of the Cape. Hitherto the parasite [Bilharzia hcpmatobium, 
Cobbold) was known only in iEgypt and North-eastern Africa, 
but it is now tolerably clear that it exists also at the Cape, at 
Natal, and in the Mauritius. Probably it will be found more 
or less abundant throughout the African continent. 
The author gives numerous details respecting the ova and 
their yelk- contents. The ciliated embryo is also very fully de- 
scribed, although, in most of the facts recorded, he appears to 
have been anticipated by the prior researches of Leuckart. As 
regards the adult parasite, the author ventures to suggest that 
we have here to deal with a new species, for which he proposes 
the title of Bilharzia capensis. Presumed differences in the 
structure of the larvae of this fluke (as contrasted with the eha- 
racters of the embryos of B. hamatobiurn) constitute the only 
ground on which this specific distinction is made. At page 
8 the author remarks : Bilharz and Griesinger, followed by 
Derseble [sic], Kiickenmeister [sic], and Leuchart [5^c], have 
described this parasite.^^ Here, unfortunately, besides several 
obvious typographical errors, there is one serious oversight 
which must be corrected. The false name Derseble is a mis- 
print for derselbe { — Idem, or the sam,e author). Dr. Harley, in 
copying the reference from Leuckart (Die menschlichen Para- 
siten, vol. i. p. 617) , has supposed Bilharz^s second paper (Wiener 
Medic. Wochenschrift, 1856) to be that of an independent 
author rejoicing in the name of Derselbe ! 
It only remains for us to observe that the accompan 3 dng 
illustrations are excellently drawn from nature. As several 
other papers on Entozoa have emanated from this country under 
the name of Harley,^' our continental readers will thank us 
for informing them that the writer of this paper is not the author 
of the memoir on Pentastoma which appeared in the Zoological 
Society’s ^Proceedings^ for the year 1857. 
