A few years ago it was believed that there was only one form of trematode responsible for the pathological conditions included in the term Bilharziosis, namely a worm, known as Schistosoma haematobium, which has had numerous other synonyms, but as I am dealing with the subject purely from a South African point of view, I need merely mention that given it by Dr John Harley, namely Distoma capense.

In pigs in Western Australia it is of frequent occurrence to find at the seat of castration large oval fibrous tumours from the size of an hen's egg to that of a tennis ball. These have a thick fibrous wall with a cavity in the centre, which is frequently small in relation to the size of the mass. The walls of this cavity are brownish-yellow and degenerated and the contents usually sero-pus of a similar colour, though at times a large quantity of ordinary whitish purulent matter is found. In films made from this brownish-yellow pus and stained with weak carbol-fuchsin or Leishman's stain, varying numbers of spirochaetes mixed with minute cocci and bacilli and larger, occasionally spore-bearing, organisms will be found. These spirochaetes vary in length from 6 μ or less to 12 μ; their thickness varies from the most delicate tenuity to that of a tubercle bacillus; the spirals may be three or four and perfectly regular or, on the other hand, quite irregular, and acute bendings even at a right angle may be seen. Further, some of the large apparently bacillary organisms may show slight undulations suggesting that they are large forms of this spirochaete. Sections of the tumour show a fibrous stroma, becoming more cellular towards the centre where it passes into necrosed tissue swarming with organisms, amongst which, sometimes in masses, spirochaetes may be found. Where the still living cells abut on the necrosed area, a varying number of eosinophile cells are revealed by Leishman's stain.

The observations relating to the treatment of canine piroplasmosis by means of drugs are usually very briefly recorded so that the precise conditions under which they were conducted cannot be ascertained.

1. Some cases of remarkable resistance to nagana infection are recorded.

2. Although such birds as pigeons are unable to harbour the trypanosoma brucei, the kestrel is able to do so.

3. Attention is drawn to certain changes which are brought about by the trypanosome infection and the need for more precise chemical investigation of these haematozoal diseases.

In a memoir recently published, Salvin-Moore and Breinl state that when Trypanosoma gambiense is examined in the blood “it does not seem possible to detect any true dimorphism or trimorphism.” “The three forms often described and alluded to as distinct, consequently appear to be arbitrarily chosen examples in a continuous series of dimensions.” It has always seemed to me very remarkable that the great differences in form and structure, no less than in size, between the slender, ordinary, and stumpy forms of T. gambiense, differences noted by all competent observers, should have been denied by two authors who claim for their methods of technique a superiority over those employed by all other investigators.

In the year 1881, G. Haller published a description of the sensory organ of ticks which has since borne his name; he was apparently so much impressed by its remarkable similarity in structure to the auditory organs of many Crustacea, that he assumed it to be an organ of hearing, and even went so far as to describe the presence of otoliths within one of the cavities of the organ. Since that time, other zoologists appear to have given little attention to this structure, the majority of those who have had occasion to mention it, contenting themselves with a brief resumé of Haller's observations and a reference to his paper.

In the course of their investigations upon different species of Piroplasma numerous observers have kept infected blood in the ice-chest, or at room temperature, for various periods of time prior to the inoculation of animals. On the evidence afforded by microscopic examination alone some observers have concluded that the parasites are capable of considerable multiplication in defibrinated blood kept in vitro. Under these conditions many corpuscles undergo haemolysis and in consequence the parasites appear to be more numerous. We believe that this source of error explains the conclusions arrived at by Lignières and others with regard to the multiplication of P. bovis in extravascular blood (see p. 253).

In the course of investigations conducted in Cambridge upon dogs infected with Piroplasma canis, a number of animals have been incidentally examined for intestinal parasites. In an unbroken series of 24 dogs, which died (March—September 1907) from piroplasmosis, the animals were autopsied immediately after death and the intestine examined by slitting it open along its whole length. We briefly record the results of these examinations, for the reason that similar reports do not appear to have hitherto been published in this country. All of the dogs harboured worms. Only three species of worms were encountered: Ascaris mystax, Dipylidium caninum and Taenia serrata.