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The liver-fluke of the sheep, which is occasionally found 
in man, is the best known of these parasites. The adult 
worm we are now considering was called by Bilharz, Dis- 
tomum haematobium, but more recent writers have placed 
it in a distinct genus, because each individual is male or 
female, and not hermaphrodite, as in the Distomata, Diesing 
called it Gynaecophorus haematobius, and Cobbold, Bilharzia 
hsematobia, in honour of its discoverer. It is described by 
Kiichenmeister, Leuckart, Cobbold, and others, in most cases 
from materials derived from Griesinger ; so that I will only 
say that the male is about half an inch in length, having a 
short body and long tail. The female is rather longer, but 
much more slender, the anterior end being less than Tooth 
of an inch in thickness, and lower part about -/oth. 
It has been supposed to be taken into the body in a 
larval condition, either with the water, or along with un- 
cooked vegetables, as water-cress, on which small molluscs 
containing cercarise may have been lodged. Another sup- 
position is that while bathing the larvae penetrate the skin. 
Opposed to this is the statement that, at the Cape, while 
the Colonists and the Coolies, who are not remarkable for a 
love of bathing, are subject to the disease produced by the 
Bilharzia, the Kaffirs, who bathe frequently — sometimes 
three or four times a day, are free from it. 
The history of the case under my care gave no clue as to 
the mode in which the parasite obtained access to the body, 
further than this, that it was quite possible that it might 
have been taken either with the water or food, the former 
being occasionally drunk unfiltered. 
The question of the introduction of the disease among us 
is a matter of much interest and importance. In these days 
of travel, cases will be imported more frequently than 
formerly, and the eggs of the parasite distributed in immense 
numbers. Dr. Cobbold mentions the case of a little girl 
from the Cape who has been recently under his care, and he 
