M* 
number of worms found in separate cases. I lius, five individuals 
measured of one case gave an average of IPOmm length by 2*50 
breadth ; 21 individuals of another case ga\ 
length by 2*40 mm. breadth; and 35 individuals of a third case give 
14-06 mm. by 3*88 mm. Nothing need be said concerning the two 
first cases; in the third, however, it is almost certain that large 
individuals of 16 to 18 mm. length have been present, although the 
author does not mention it especially. KATSURADA explains the 
variations in the size of the worms by circumstances such as size of 
the host, number of parasites actually present at the same place, &c, 
and says that “in cases where few worms only inhabit a full-grown 
man many of more considerable size arc found among them ; whilst, 
on the contrary, in children, dogs and cats the worms are generally 
smaller.” 
This view, by the way, which was still very generally adopted not 
so many years ago, is not supported by actual observations. I have 
for several years paid special attention to this question, but all my 
experiences tend to show that every species of parasite has a size of 
its own. There may occasionally be individual specimens which 
tiespass the normal size of their race more or less markedly (just as 
this occurs in Man and higher animals), but, as a rule, their size is 
very much the same, whether they live in a large or in a small host. 
A full-grown Ascaris lumbricoid.es is as large in a child of one years 
age as it is in an old man of seventy; and the common liver-fluke is 
not smaller in a goat or a sheep than it is in a cow, nor is it, when 
lull-grown, smaller in a narrow bile-duct than in a wide one. In the 
a ove mentioned case of Distoma sinense observed by Dr. CUFFEY. 
C 77 s thlckl y crowded the bile-ducts of medium calibre; 
I C 6SS ’ not a s * n &I e small specimen could be detected among the 
osc ones. The small Distoma endemicum, on the other hand. 
indivirt 1 SPeCi 7 S ' /G c I uke * rres pcctive of the number in which the 
mdmduals may be present in a given host 
collected in rVatlons far spoken of had all been made on material 
al o been H Pan ' a""" 8 ^ however, the parasite had 
Extreme 0*17 , ” SUbj6CtS other parts of the 
I do n”: po r s the s aS T ea ' TOnk ‘"' island Of Formosa, 
refer the reader L 1, ‘ erature on earlier cases, but may 
r O an article by R. Blanchard, “Note sur quelques 
