THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. LII. 
No. 616. 
APRIL, 1879. 
Fourth Series, 
No. 292. 
Communications and Cases. 
REMARKS ON ETJSTRONGYLUS GIGAS. By 
T. Spencer Cobbold, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Hel¬ 
minthology, Royal Veterinary College. 
The object of the present brief communication is to draw 
attention to the peculiarities of habit shown by this remark¬ 
able entozoon, and at the same time to give prominence to 
M. Megnin’s recent announcement of its occurrence in the 
abdominal cavity of a dog. As is generally known, the 
Museum of the Royal Veterinary College contains three 
choice examples of the worm, two males and one female. 
They occupied the kidney of a dog, entirely destroying the 
glandular substance of the organ. The Hunterian Museum 
contains a fine specimen which was undoubtedly removed 
from the human body, besides several others from various 
animals. It also includes a series of dissections which I 
executed and mounted for the collection in 1865. 
Hitherto the precise course of development and mode of 
origination of this parasite has baffled the best efforts of in¬ 
vestigators. As stated by me in a recent communication to 
the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, 
the embryos of Eustrongylus are vermiform, measuring 
about the one hundredth of an inch in length. From the 
anatomical observations of Schneider and Leuckart, it 
would seem that the immature worms dwell chiefly in fresh¬ 
water fishes. Thus, the so-called Filaria cystica must be 
regarded as an immature Eustrongylus gigas. Hitherto, 
LII. 17 
