DR. CHISHOLM ON THE MALTS DRACUNCULUS. 078 
cattle. The question with which we are most interested is, the 
propriety or impropriety of inoculation with matter procured 
from cattle labouring under typhus, as producing a milder dis- 
ease, and a security from future attack. The Professor appears 
to be a decided advocate for this inoculation when the disease is 
prevalent and destructive. This is a most important question, 
and is intimately connected with other inquiries and practices 
relating to the same and other diseases in other animals. 
He proposes to treat on the following points : — the choice of 
the matter — its preservation — the inoculation — the immediate 
and ultimate effect of the virus on the constitution — the history 
of the practice in different European states — its success or failure 
in producing a milder and more tractable disease ; and also 
the permanent effect produced on the constitution w'ith regard 
to future liability to these diseases, or exemption from them. 
Recueil de Vet . Med. Avril 1837. 
[To be continued.] 
DR. CHISHOLM ON THE MALIS DRACUNCULUS. 
[Continued from page 102.] 
The very singular instances lately recorded of a foetus found 
in the abdomen of two boys, one in the Bulletin de TEcole de 
Medecine de Paris (see Med. Surg. Jour, of Edin. vol. i, 076) ; the 
other, in the first volume of the Med. Chirurg. Trans, of London, 
by G.W. Young, Esq., appear to me manifest proofs, that neither 
the digestive powers of the stomach, nor the living principle of 
the blood, can destroy the ova of animals received into them. I 
am aware that the difficulties attending the explanation of this 
phenomenon, may render it inapplicable as a proof in the discus- 
sion before us. It may, however, be assigned to superfoetation 
as explicative of its origin, with as much reason as to “ a radi- 
cal vice in the organization of the germs,” on the supposition of 
the phenomenon being of the nature of twins. How do the 
fasciolae hepaticae penetrate into the biliary ducts of the livers 
of sheep which die of the rot? (probably a species of scrofula.) 
Let us recollect the first axiom in the science of nature, omne 
vivum ex ovo ; and the answer made to the question will doubtless 
be, that the eggs of this insect were received into the stomach ; 
and, after passing through the circulating system, at length depo- 
sited in the liver. A species of this insect inhabits the stomach 
of certain fish, particularly the bream, and thence called by Lin- 
naeus intestinalis. This insect presents an instance of tenacity 
of life, fully as remarkable as its existence in the stomach of the 
vol. x. 0 c 
