W. Nicoll 389 
perhaps undue proportion, but although a considerable Australian literature 
on the subject exists most recent work has been done in Europe, chiefly by 
Deve. In the course of a very extensive series of experiments he has dealt 
with a great variety of aspects of the disease both primary and secondary. 
Most recently he has been especially concerned with experimental echino¬ 
coccosis of bones and with the disease as it manifests itself in infants, both 
subjects which appear to be of importance from the point of view of compara¬ 
tive pathology. He has also dealt to some extent with the matter of treat¬ 
ment. 
The subject of serological diagnosis of hydatid disease has also engaged 
a fair amount of attention. This practically dates from the original work of 
Weinberg and of Welsh and Chapman in 1908. Since then, however, Weinberg 
(1913) has further elaborated the work which is of great importance as, in 
addition to its bearing on hydatid disease, it raises the whole cpiestion of serum 
diagnosis in the case of helminths. It is obvious that the method is of sig¬ 
nificance in the diagnosis of such helminth infections as are not readily 
diagnosable by ordinary clinical methods. 
Another important contribution to our knowledge of echinococcosis appears 
to be that of Mita (1918) but this work I have been unable to consult. 
The occurrence of the adult Taenia echinococcus in dogs in Friesland forms 
the subject of a monograph by Tenhaeff and Ferwerda (1919). 
A subject which has recently come into prominence is that of rat cancer 
(Spiroptera tumours) with which the name of Fibiger is most intimately 
associated. He and his colleague, Ditlevsen, conclude that Spiroptera or 
Gongylonema neoplasticum , as they name the worm, is capable of giving rise 
to intestinal growths of a true malignant or cancerous character, with meta- 
stases. According to Fibiger the larvae of this parasite occur encysted in cock¬ 
roaches (Periplaneta americana), with which he claims to have infected rats. 
It should be noted that a number of worms ( e.g . Oesophagostomum spp., etc.) 
cause tumour formation in the intestine of their host but such formation is 
not necessarily of a malignant character. Bulloch and Rohdenburg (1918), 
moreover, showed that similar tumours could be produced in rats bv intro¬ 
ducing a spiny glass ball into the stomach. 
Compared with that on Bilharzia recent literature relating to the lung- 
flukes ( Paragonimus ) is extremely scanty. The most important contributions 
are those of Ward and Hirsch (1915), Yoshida (1916) and Nakagawa (1916). 
The first-mentioned consists of a revision and correction of existing morpho¬ 
logical knowledge of the species of Paragonimus. Nakagawa was the first to 
discover the intermediate hosts of the parasite, namely the freshwater crabs 
Potamon ohtusipes and P. dehaanii. Yoshida added two other species of crab, 
Sesarma dehaanii and Eriocheir japonicus. In these crabs the parasites occur 
in their encysted cercarial stage, and an earlier intermediate host of the sporo- 
cyst stage, probably a mollusc, yet awaits discovery. Yoshida (1916 a) followed 
the course of the infecting larvae in their final host (dogand cat) experimentally 
