128 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
transformations appear to be exclusively confined to her¬ 
bivorous animals, and especially the ruminating species; it 
is rarely found in the horse, and never in carnivorous 
animals. I have found it in sheep, cattle, goats, opossums, 
kangaroos, geese, ducks, &c., but have never seen it or any¬ 
thing like it in men, dogs, or pigs. The human hydatid 
has been distinctly traced to the invasion of the parasites 
of carnivorous animals, such as the transformation of the 
tsenia of the dog, and there is every reassn to believe that 
nearly every case may be accounted for by the careless and 
unnatural manner in which many persons associate and 
almost live with domestic animals. The result of a com¬ 
mission of inquiry some years ago in Iceland proved that 
one sixth of the deaths which occurred in that country 
arose from hydatid disease, received by its inhabitants from 
their constant companion the dog, and I have been informed 
by a gentleman who spent some years amongst the Kuzzle- 
bashes of the desert that the Arab is very subject to tape¬ 
worm, which he takes from his horse. In this district, 
where fluke has been always more or less prevalent in sheep 
and cattle since its settlement, I have, after careful inquiry, 
only heard of one case of hydatid cyst in the human subject, 
whilst on the salt plains of Lower Murray, where fluke 
cannot be produced in sheep, I found during a period of 
six years no less than three cases of hydatid liver cyst in 
the European and two cases amongst the aboriginal popula¬ 
tion, and in every case their presence might be reasonably 
attributed to their promiscuous association with the dogs. 
• 
We are prepared to endorse much of the writer's state¬ 
ment respecting the innocuous character of well-cooked meat 
from fluky sheep, but we have frequently opposed the eating 
of rot-affected mutton as being comparatively innutritious.* 
Dr. Rowe has fallen into one important error which must be 
corrected. So far from its being true to say that the com¬ 
mon fluke does not infest the human body, we believe there 
are no less than eighteen instances on record where the 
Fasciola hepatica has been found in man. 
* Our readers will find a full description of Rot in the 'Journal of the 
Royal Agricultural Society’ from the pen of Professor Simonds. 
