80 
WORMS IN THE EYES OF OXEN. 
is peculiar to the horse, being found within the cellular tissues 
and also within the cavities of the abdomen, thorax, and cra¬ 
nium ; hence, I see no impossibility why either the worm itself, 
of a minute size, or its germ, may not through similar passages 
make its way into the eye, wherein the humours proving favour¬ 
able to its existence, it becomes developed. 
In regard to the worm found within the eye of the ox, there 
appears every reason to class the observations of M. Chaignaud 
with the case of one discovered by M. Rhodes,* from which 
Bose formed his genus Thelazms, a kindred one to the filaria 
papillosa in respect to its general conformation and in particular 
its mouth. Nevertheless, Bose, following Rhodes, observes 
that this worm has been found upon the and under the eye-- 
lid, J of the ox, a different situation from that assigned to them 
by M. Chaignaud, whose description of the worm is unfortu¬ 
nately too general to make any comparison. In our opinion a 
difference of habitation ought not to banish the idea of identity; 
for if, as we suspect, the worm discovered by Rhodes is of the 
filaria family, it must possess the same itinerant propensities, 
and therefore it need not surprise us that from the chamber of 
the eye, wherein it has been developed, it should make its way 
through the different tissues forming the tunics of the organ to 
take up its residence under the lid. 
How ever this may be, we will give the characters of the The- 
lazius Rhodesii, be it or not the w^orm of Chaignaud :—Body 
elongated, cylindrical, ^ of an inch in length and less than 
part of a line in diameter; attenuated at either extremity, ter¬ 
minated anteriorly by a tri-valvular mouth, surrounded with 
four oval stigmata, and posteriorly and below by a long bilabial 
cleft, considered by Rhodes to be the anus, and which at the 
same time serves as a vacuum to fix the animal while it imbibes 
the humours of the eye; one large tortuous gut running from 
the mouth to the anus ; the substance composing the body soft, 
white, and semi-diaphanous, strengthed in front by circular fi¬ 
bres. 
I have not hitherto had an opportunity of examining one of 
these w^orms. But, up to the present time, in the intestinal 
worms, nothing like a special organ of respiration has been dis¬ 
covered ; and in all others in which such has been demonstra¬ 
ble, no such arrangement has been remarked analogous to what 
Rhodes and Bose have ascribed to the thelazy. 
* Veterinary Surgeon in the department of Gors. 
f Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat, 
J Bull. Soc. Phil. 1819. 
