x 4 
cannot get sufficient food to support them any longer, or they 
have reached the natural limit of their existence Thus, then, 
the natural history of the liver fluke, the symptoms, and 
post-mortem appearance presented by the animals infested 
lead us to enquire if anything can be done in the way of 
TREATMENT. 
This I am sorry to say is not at all satisfactory. Looking 
at the anatomy of the liver and the arrangement of the bile 
ducts, we are led to ask “ In what manner are we to reach the 
creatures located therein ? ” Certainly there is one great 
advantage, we have in gaining almost direct access to the 
liver with medicinal agents, and that is through the special 
circulation of the portal system, communicating almost 
directly between the stomach, small intestines and the liver, 
and carrying the new materials absorbed from the food 
which passes through the liver before gaining the regular 
circulation. 
When we take into account the peculiar arrangement of 
the digestive organs of the liver fluke and note how it imbibes 
its food through the oriel sucker, which is firmly closed after 
it has had its fill, and retained for a certain period and 
ejected by the same opening ; we arrive at the conclusion 
that the only way we can reach the creatures with medicinal 
agents is by loading the system of the affected animals with 
materials that will not prove injurious to their health; yet at 
the same time will so saturate the bile on which the fluke 
lives that it will cause its utter annihilation. 
But owing to the important fact that medical substances 
are liable to undergo chemical change on their way through 
