ON PARASITES OF THE ASS. 
69 
From the frequency of the dracunculus among us during 
the time of the importation of slaves from the coast of 
Africa, from its extremely rare appearance since the final 
extinction of that trade, and the want of any evidence of its 
existence anterior to that barbarous traffic, we are warranted 
in drawing the conclusion that the parasite was brought from 
Africa along with the introduction thence of slavery. 
The case I am about to relate proves alike the endemic 
existence of the Guinea worm in Brazil, as well as its intro¬ 
duction into the human body by the stomach, two facts still 
called in question by the great majority of helminthologists.* 
I shall before concluding make some short reflections as to 
how far the present endemic existence of the dracunculus 
among us, definitely settled as that is by the following nar¬ 
rative, bears on the question, as to whether its original 
introduction among us be due exclusively to the importation 
of slaves from the coast of Africa. 
(To be continued .) 
ON PARASITES OF THE ASS. 
By John Henry Steel, M.R.C.V.S., Demonstrator of 
Anatomy at the Royal Veterinary College. 
In the following paper I have endeavoured to summarise 
results obtained from special and careful examination of 31 
asses of various sexes, all advanced in years, during the 
months of November and October, 1878. These results 
may, I believe, be relied upon, as I exercised considerable 
care in examination of all these animals, and they were all 
used for dissecting purposes, and their organs therefore 
subjected to close scrutiny. In the constant state of work 
which supervision of a dissecting room necessitates, of 
course, I have been unable to make any microscopical investi¬ 
gations such as I might have desired to further elucidate 
my subject. This summary then deals only with that which 
has been seen with the naked eye and exposed by the scalpel 
in the ordinary investigation of the descriptive anatomy of 
structures; even thus limited I hope it has some value. 
* Most of us consider that the question as to parasites’ mode of access 
to the human body is at length definitively set at rest; but Dr. da Silva 
Lima’s confirmatory evidence, deduced from observed facts, is none the 
less valuable on that account. The eminent Russian traveller, M. Fedt- 
schenko, has clearly proved that the larvae of the Guinea worm are swallowed 
after they have gained access to, and have developed within the bodies of 
freshwater entomostracous crustaceans of the genus Cyclops. Water con¬ 
taining these conspicuous animalcules is therefore dangerous to drink.— Eds. 
