368 
T. F. WINCHESTER. 
becoming organized and undergoing softening. Its formation 
is essentially connected with the presence of the worms, the 
inflammatory processes, ulcerative and regressive, in the in- 
tei nal tunic and the dilation of the vessel. Decroly has pub¬ 
lished a remarkable case, in which the alteration in the aorta 
extended from the heart to the lumbar region. 
In the aneurism, worms are found in nine cases out of ten; 
their average number is from 9 to 11, and varies between 2 
and 121. When they are absent, the lesions have a chronic 
chaiacter; but when they are present, then these are more or 
less acute. The parasites are young, armed sclerostomes. 
1 hey ai e rose-tinted, and their average length is from 1 to 3 
cm-; their sexual characters are already well defined, but their 
genital organs remain rudimentary. They undergo one 
moulting in this situation, in which their buccal armature as¬ 
sumes its definite characters. Rayer and Diesing, who erro¬ 
neously considered them as a distinct variety, named them, the 
former, the strongylus armatus minor, and the latter, the scler- 
ostoma armatum aneurysmaticum. 
Amongst the aneurismal sclerostomes, some are almost free 
in the cavity of the artery; but the majority are more or less 
concealed in the layers of the thrombus, the head or tail usually 
projecting into the blood stream. They are also found in the 
hypei trophied walls of the artery, in either the internal or 
middle coats, or between these two. Sometimes nothing is 
found of them except the integuments they left after their final 
moulting. 
The gravity of verminous aneurism is due to the risk of 
1 upture of the vessels, and more especially, as Bollinger has 
pointed out, to their influence on the frequency and serious¬ 
ness of colics. 
The clot formed in the interior of the great mesenteric, or 
other arteries liable to these aneurisms, may throw off one or 
moi e fragments, which are carried by the blood, and consti¬ 
tute so many embola in the arterial ramifications passing to 
the intestine. According to the size of the embolus, the ob- 
literated artery is itself more or less voluminous, and the dis- 
tui bance set up more or less serious; there is sudden anaemia 
