REMARKS ON EUSTRONGYLUS GIGAS. 233 
nate, indeed, for man that the great kidney-worm (j Eustron- 
gylus gigas) has only once been detected in the human body. 
If this formidable entozoon, capable of attaining a length of 
three feet, were as common in man as it is in certain 
animals, no doubt the superstitious people of southern climes 
would readily invoke clerical aid in view of obtaining 
miraculous cures. Possibly a mitigation of their sufferings 
might follow such exhibitions of human sympathy and trust. 
The case of animals, however, is very different. The un¬ 
fortunate wolves of the Pyrenees cannot, of course, be ex¬ 
pected to secure any very large amount of sympathy; 
nevertheless, it is the business and duty of the helmintholo¬ 
gist to point to the causes of the sufferings of all kinds of 
animals, whether wild or domesticated, and so far as lies in 
his power to suggest the means whereby their sufferings 
may be mitigated. Not only do solitary and large nematoid 
parasites take up their abode in essentially vital organs of 
the body, and thus secure the slow destruction of the host, 
but the minutest forms of the same group of entozoa fre¬ 
quently occur in sufficiently prodigious numbers to sweep off 
their victims by hundreds or even by thousands. Animal 
epizootics due to this source have hitherto been little 
studied. 
The occurrence of the great renal worm in the dog is of 
sufficient rarity to demand particular notice, especially in 
cases where the parasite is found in some other organ than 
the kidney itself. Through the courtesy of an eminent en¬ 
tomologist (Mr. Robert McLachlan, F.R.S.), I have been 
put in possession of the last issued Bulletin de la Societe 
Entomologique de France (No. 3, 1879), and in it I find that 
the President of the Society, Mons. J.-Pierre Megnin, who 
is also veterinary surgeon of the first class to the 12th 
Artillery Regiment, stationed at Vincennes, read a paper to 
the Society, on the 12th of February, which is reported as 
follows : 
“ M. Megnin exhibited a nematode parasite received from 
the histological laboratory of Professor Robin, and taken 
from a dog that had served for experiments on lymph, and 
which had not presented any symptom of disease during life. 
The parasite was none other than a male Strongylus gigas. 
measuring 25 centimetres in length by a diameter of 5 mil¬ 
limetres, and having a blood-red colour in every part. It 
was found free in the peritoneal cavity, the serous lining 
membrane of which had been infiltrated and injected at 
several points of its surface, and particularly on the folds of 
the epiploon. The kidneys, on section, were perfectly normal, 
