DR. CHISHOLM ON THE MALTS DRACUNCULUS. 99 
he is misinformed. The second, or clay worm, I apprehend, is 
that which is found so frequently at Bombay, in the clay. But 
by far the most common in hot countries is the true Guinea- 
worm, the third, or medinensis. Had a description of those 
spoken of by Mr. Inglis and Mr. Scott been given, the point, 
as it relates to Bombay, might have been ascertained. 
The generation of worms is very imperfectly known. Earth 
worm^ evidently copulate : I have witnessed them in the act of 
doing so many times. I believe they are oviparous. Intestinal 
lumbrici are certainly oviparous, and there is much reason for 
believing that they copulate also ; for the intussusception which 
sometimes proves fatal to young subjects, is occasioned by knots 
of lumbrici united to each other in the congressional act. I am 
induced to form this opinion by some instructive cases which 
occurred to me in Grenada. 
The first of these took place in the year 1787, of which notes 
were taken at the time. The subject was a negro child, about 
three years old. To the usual symptoms of intussusception were 
added most violent spasmodic twitchings of the muscles of all 
the body, terminating in complete hemiplegia, and inability to 
speak or swallow. Two hours after death, I opened the abdo- 
men, and, as I suspected, found the small intestines filled with 
lumbrici. But what chiefly engaged my attention and surprise, 
was to find intussusceptions in seven different parts of the ileum 
and jejunum ; and wherever these were formed, to find them 
caused by large knots or bundles of worms, which carried the 
gut from above downwards. In one of these, the gut had thus 
doubled down at least four inches, and the doubled part was 
considerably thickened and inflamed. My surprise was still 
more excited, on examining the knots or bundles, to find that 
their union in this state was occasioned by their being copulated, 
or adherent, in the manner I had seen earth worms. 
They did not appear possessed of the acute sense which 
the earth worms so remarkably exhibit in this state, but per- 
mitted themselves to be drawn from each other. Perhaps 
dracunculi may propagate in the same manner. They are, 
indeed, much more imperfect animals than lumbrici ; but, never- 
theless, I cannot accede to the opinion sometimes embraced, 
that their generation is equivocal, or their propagation effected 
by offsets or cuttings. My belief is thus expressed by an elegant 
writer in The Amocnitates Academical: “ Ne quis tamen inde 
neget primum in naturae scientia axioma, quid omnevivum ex ovo, 
quamvis et hydra et Gordius in centenas partes divisi renascan- 
tur in totidcm animalia.” — De Memorabilibus in Insectis , tom. ii, 
p. 401. 
