374 PARASITIC DISEASE IN BATRACHIA AND SALMONIDiE. 
sites which occupied the cavity of the nose, my chief thought 
was how I could best put the unfortunate batrachian out of 
its misery. I killed the toad ; but the parasites were neither 
removed nor preserved. It was, in fact, my earliest observa¬ 
tion in helminthology. From that time onward the circum¬ 
stance continually recurred to me as one worthy of scientific 
notice; but as, until recently, I had received no confirma¬ 
tion of the correctness of the observation, the matter was 
allowed to pass. During my prolonged absence from town 
last autumn, a letter arrived from Dr. C. A. McMunn, of 
Clarence House, Waterloo Road, near Wolverhampton, 
describing something very similar. Writing on the 6th of 
August, 1879, Dr. McMunn records the following incident:— 
“As I was returning home from the country yesterday I 
noticed a toad slowly crawling across the road, and on 
taking it up I found two holes in the front of its head, 
evidently the nostrils, very much increased in size. They 
were filled with moving bodies. To-day the animal died. 
The two holes have coalesced into one, and the cavity formed 
by this coalescence is filled with the same parasites I saw 
yesterday. I enclose the toad, as I know you are interested 
in such matters.” 
For the reason above stated, it was not until the expira¬ 
tion of three months that I had opportunity to read Dr. 
McMunn’s letter, and to open the paper-box containing the 
toad. After explaining this by letter, my correspondent was 
kind enough to furnish me with some additional particulars. 
Writing at the close of the year, he observes :—“ On ex¬ 
amining the toad more carefully, I found each nostril filled 
with whitish small worm-like bodies, which would amount, 
I should say, to fifty or more in each nostril. They kept 
appearing at the outside of the nostrils, and then receding, 
these movements being probably due to the respiratory efforts 
of the toad. They also had a rolling motion, individually. 
After some hours the septum between the nostrils was quite 
eaten away, and a large hole appeared in the animal’s head, 
the toad being then quite dead.” Dr. McMunn did not 
observe any rings or hooks, but in a postscript he expresses 
the opinion that the parasites represented “ the larvae of 
some insect.” 
I must here mention that the envelope and box had 
arrived in a torn state. When I examined the contents of 
the box, there was nothing but the skeleton of the toad, the 
remains of numerous pupae, from which the perfect insects 
had escaped, and the wool and notepaper in which the toad 
was packed. The surface of the writing paper was plainly 
