342 
HELMINTHOLOGY, 
length of time. Warm water, gravy, blood, and milk, 
have been tried to little purpofe. In afles-milk, warm 
from the animal, they are found to fuftain life and 
motion by far the longed ; and thofe taken out of filh 
will live much longer than thofe. taken out of man or 
any warm-blooded animal; the reafon of which is eafily 
accounted for from the cold temperature of the blood of 
filh, which renders their worms more tenacious of life in 
the temperature of the atmofphere. 
From the great number of inteftinal worms found in 
almoft every kind of filh, particularly tape-worms, it 
lias been fuggefted that this lingular fpecies might, by 
eating filh, be transferred to the human inteftinal canal ; 
and the favourers of this opinion appeal to the well- 
known fadt,- that in Holland, SvvilTerland, and Rulfia, 
where filh is almoft their daily food, there by far the 
greateft number of people infefted with thefe worms are 
found. It has indeed been eftimated that in Swilferland 
every tenth, and in Holland every fecond, perfon has 
tapeworms. But this conclufion would by no means be 
founded, even if it had not been proved that worms pe¬ 
culiar to one kind of animal cannot exift in the inteftines 
of a different animal ; for in Denmark, where prodigi¬ 
ous quantities of filh are alfo eaten, fcarcely a Angle per¬ 
fon is ever known to be troubled with this worm, and 
yet their fifties abound with them. The Jews, like- 
wife, in all parts of Europe, eat large quantities of filh ; 
yet Dr. Bloch of Berlin alferts, that after a ftridl en¬ 
quiry among different tribes of thofe people, he was 
confidently allured that perfons afflidled with tapeworms 
were fcarcely ever heard of among the Jewilh ‘commu¬ 
nity. Befides, if it were poflible for the fifh-worms to 
be communicated to the animals which feed on filh, 
then every aquatic bird, and numbers of the mammalia 
clafs, who live almoft entirely on the finny tribe, would 
abound with thofe Specific worms ; but the truth is, that 
no worms except thole peculiar to themfelves are ever 
found in them ; fo that fifh-eaters need not be under any 
alarm from feafting on that highly-nourifhing aliment. 
To prove that the inteftinal worms peculiar to one 
kind of animal cannot exift in the bowels of a different 
kind, M. Goeze made tire following experiment: To a 
young,cock, in whole inteftines the taenia infundibuli- 
formis is ufually found, at three different times, after 
an interval of a month, and after the cock had fail¬ 
ed full twelve hours, he gave at once three taenia fer- 
rata, taken alive on diiTection from a cat, and at an¬ 
other time he put down feveral live taenia-canina, which 
the cock picked up and fwallowed greedily. At the 
expiration of four months Goeze killed the cock, and 
ditfeCled the inteftines with great care; but not a trace 
could he difcover of the worms that had been.eaten ; 
nor was the taenia infundibuliformis, or funnel-fhaped 
tapeworm, peculiar to this bird, found in him. This, 
with other (imilar experiments, and the djfcourfe upon 
them, inferted in M, Goeze’;; very ingenious treatife, 
“filer Ungewtidexourmef Thierifcher Rorper gained him 
one of the prizes from’the Copenhagen Royal Society ; 
while the other was defervedly bellowed on Dr. Bloch 
of Berlin. 
It has been intimated by fome writers on this curious 
fubjedt, that though living worms may not, as. in the 
above experiment, el’cape the trituration of the*ftomach, 
yet the ovula or eggs might; and, as the inteftinal worms 
are fuppofed fometimes to call their fpawn with the 
• faeces, it is not only poflible, but probable, that among 
wild animals, bjrds of prey, and the countlefs number 
of flioals. of.,fifties, the faeces may be, and in fadl are, 
often eaten by one another ; fo that, whenever the feces 
Ill a 11 happen to be charged with the fpawn or eggs of 
.inteftinal worms, thefe, by being very minute, and 
lodged in a kind of mucus or jelly, would naturally ef- 
cape trituration; and being thus reftored to their na¬ 
tive element in the warm inteftinal canal, would be there 
attacjied to its inner coats, and in due feafdn be hatch¬ 
ed and matured in the body of a very different animal 
from its original parent. But, plaufible as this hypo, 
thefis might appear, M. Goeze fucceeded in difproving 
it, by ftiowing that he had alfo given the eggs or ovula 
of inteftinal worms, taker, by difledtion, to poultry, but 
without effedl; befides that, in difledting an infinite va¬ 
riety of different animals, from the largeft to the fmalleft, 
he conftantly found the inteftinal worms to differ in the 
whole of them, each individual having a peculiar con¬ 
formation of its own adapted to that fpecies or kind of 
animals only .from which he extradled it. And Goeze 
further remarks, that if groups of eggs, taken out of the 
ovaries ofthefe worms, and inftantly fwallowed by other 
animals, cannot be maturated or hatched by them, it is 
impoffible that fuch ovula, caft out upon the cold earth, 
or into cold water, ffiould ever be quickened into life, 
after thus lofing their fecundity or vivifying power. 
Befides, many fpecies of thefe worms are viviparous, 
fuch as the afcaris vermicularis, many of the echino- 
rynchi, cucullani. See. which mull therefore exclude 
their young alive into the mucus, and in this infant ftate 
they are often thrown out with the feces, and devoured, 
by birds of many kinds; “yet, (fays Goeze,) I chal¬ 
lenge the world to produce me a Angle inftance wherein 
fuch worm has been found alive in any creature which 
has fwallowed it, or in any other fpecies of animal be¬ 
fides that to which God and nature has afligned it. But, 
(continues this writer,) what are we to fuppofe then be¬ 
comes of the myriads of eggs depofited by thefe crea¬ 
tures, and the tapeworm in particular ? I conceive that 
they muft ferve fome other purpofe in the economy of 
nature, befides the main office of propagating their like; 
as does moll certainly the feed of plants, and the fpawn 
of fifties. May they not ferve as food for each other, as 
the fpawn of fillies does ? If every egg in the herring 
or cod were to be hatched, the fea would foon be too 
fmall to contain the incalculable numbers of thefe fifties! 
So if the ovula or eggs of the tapeworm were all brought 
into exiftence, the perfon whofe inteftines contained the 
parent worm, would foon become all worm : and hence 
we cannot but admire and adore the benevolent wifdom 
of the Creator, in fixing due bounds to the multiplica¬ 
tion of his creatures, throughout the various orders of 
his admirable works.” 
It is obferved by profeflor Pallas, that from the dif- 
fedtions he had inlpedted, he was warranted in conclud- 
ing, that wild beaftsare moll of all afflidted with worms; 
but the nibbling or gnawing animals, which are care¬ 
ful in the feledtion of their food, feldom; and the ru¬ 
minant animals feldomer flill. Among birds, the car¬ 
nivorous, and thole that live near the habitations of 
men, or that are domefticated, have them moll fre¬ 
quently. Among fifties, the voracious, longejl living, as 
carp, and all fuch as fwim in Ihoals, are by tar the moft 
afflicted with.worms. Yet M. Goeze, on this palfage 
of Dr. Pallas, remarks, that he himfelf diffedted very 
conliderable numbers of foxes, martens, ferrets, and 
other fmall rapacious animals, and found in them very 
few worms, when compared with the nibbling and gnaw'- 
ing kind, which pick their food carefully and choicely. 
The woodcock, he fays, and the granivorous birds, are 
very clean feeders, yet lie difeovered a number of taenia 
in diliedling the woodcock, and a ftill greater number 
in the inteftines of a partridge. In lambs, Iheep, hares, 
conies, See. he found taenia, and other i^orms of vari¬ 
ous kinds: but'in fwine, which are by far the foulefl 
feeders, he conftantly obferved the lead number of worms. 
“To conclude, (fays M. Goeze,) fince we find fami¬ 
lies of inteftinal worms inhabiting more or lefs the bo¬ 
dies of all animals which we have hitherto diffedted ; 
and fince thefe families feem to refolve themfelves into 
a beautiful arrangement of orders, genera, and fpecies, 
and are conftant in their figure, habitudes, and economy, 
in each of thofe animals to which they belong,' it feems 
to me to be moft conionant to reafon, as well as moft 
compatible 
