breadth. From the names given to the species it may be inferred 
that the small variety is very common in the country ("endemic'") 
and harmful to its host (“pernicious”), presumably because of its 
occurrence in large numbers, whilst the larger is rarer, i.e. not present 
in large numbers and therefore comparatively harmless (“ innocuous " V 
In subsequent years the Japanese liver-flukes were the object 
of repeated scientific investigation. It was soon recognised that they 
bore a close anatomical resemblance to the Chinese liver-fluke 
discovered by McCoNNELL ; as a matter of fact, all later authors arc 
agreed in declaring them more or less definitely as identical with mu 
another as well as with the Distoma sinense. A comparative study ol 
the papers published by these authors, however, reveals an interesting 
fact, namely that so far as specimens of Japanese origin are concerned 
these authors, with one exception, do not seem to have ever again seen 
the large variety, i.e. the Dist. innocuuni of BAELZ. Thus in 1SS1 
IjIMA, when describing Dist. endcmicum , gives the aver.ige length of 
the body as ilfmm., whilst the largest specimens measure i t, tin- 
smallest 8 mm. in length; the breadth is 2 to 2f mm. LEUCKART 
who named the Distoma sinense of COBBOLD Distomum 
spathulatum , examined part of BAELZ’S original material md 
specimens sent to him by IjIMA ; he found the worms to vary in 
length from 10 to 13 mm. and in breadth from 2 to 3 mm. I saw tln- 
material myself at the time and do not remember having noticed any 
remarkable difference in size of the specimens. In iqoo, KATSURAPA 
published a very exhaustive paper based upon 76 post-mortem 
examinations in which altogether an enormous number of parasites 
were found ; in 21 cases indeed their number exceeded r.ooo and in 
five there were between 2,000 and 5,000. It may be mentioned hen 
in passing that KATSURAPA for the first time states that in r;v-es < ! 
strong infection the parasites also occur in the pancreatic duct 
causing there sometimes no perceptible changes, but generally .* 
dilatation of the ducts combined with a thickening of their walls 
occasionally, one may even observe inflammatory infiltration and 
hypertrophy of the connective tissue in the neighbourhood which 
seems to lead to atrophy and degeneration of the glandular substam <- 
With regard to the question which interests us here, it is to l>r 
regretted that KATSURAPA does not give exact measures of individu.il 
specimens, but averages only derived from measurements of a certain 
