once a day for three days, and then an interval of a few days, then more turpentine, and so on, until the fowl recovers. This remedy is recommended for intestinal worms of any sort.

Areca Nut-powdered and mixed with butter or other fat may be given. It is made up into pills to which bran is often added. The dose is thirty to forty-five grains of the powdered areca nut. Any chemist will weigh out the doses. In my opinion this remedy should not be given often, or many times in succession.

Liquid male-fern extract-made into pills with bran or meal or flour. Half a tea-spoonful will answer for a full-grown fowl.

These are among the best remedies, though others have been recommended. The medicines should be fresh, or they will do little good; and in general they should be followed the next day or later the same day with a tea-spoonful of castor oil.

It is better to rely on preventing than on curing.

Finally, for the benefit of specialists, I will append more complete descriptions of these worms than have been hitherto published, with a note on the young of one of the species.

Genus Heterakis.

85.

-2 1.3 5.2 '52.' 98.
2.

+9

68 mm. The colourless

1. Heterakis inflexa, Rudolphi.-68 12 skin is marked by plain transverse striæ, 20μ apart, and on the margin of the body shows a crenate contour. There are no hairs or other appendages on the skin. The head is marked off by a trifling constriction, and is somewhat rounded in front, being devoid of cephalic setæ. The mouth is surrounded by three lips, each of which is three-lobed, the middle lobe being the largest. Apparently there are two low circular papillæ on the dorsal lip, and one each, broad and low, on the two submedian lips. There are no organs of vision, and apparently no lateral organs, at any rate the latter cannot be conspicuous. The pharynx is of a form natural to three large, somewhat hemispherical lips. The oesophagus assumes the following dimensions: just behind the pharynx it is one-third as wide as the neck; at a distance from the base of the pharynx equal to the width of the head, it swells a little, and then narrowing a little, proceeds, conoid, to the cardiac constriction, where it diminishes in a clavate manner, as shown in I, Fig. 7. The lining of the œsophageal tube shows, for the most part, as three longitudinal lines. The cardiac constriction is broad, and measures one-third as great as the corresponding body-width. The cardia is very flat, and there is no distinct cardiac cavity. The intestine is about one-third as wide as the body, and ends posteriorly in a rectum twice as long as the body is wide. The ventral excretory pore is located just behind the somewhat oblique nerve-ring. The longitudinal fields are one-third as wide as the body, and are coarsely granular in structure. The irregularly conoid tail ends in a blunt terminus, bearing an inconspicuous button. The anal region is a little elevated, as is also the region of the vulva. In a female 73 millimetres long the uterus was one-fourth to one-half a millimetre wide and 33 millimetres long. It was directed forward for 1 millimetres of its length, and then backward for another 1 millimetres, when it became bifurcate, the two branches extending in opposite directions half-way to the head, and half-way to the tail, then back to near the vulva. The eggs contained in the uterus are 48–52 × 73–82 μ, and are surrounded by an apparently structureless shell 4-5 μ thick. The eggs begin gastrulation while in the uterus, and may possibly, before being laid, go on to the formation of an embryo.

These latter particulars will enable anyone with the aid of a microscope to recognise these eggs in the dung of infested fowls, an important feature in the diagnosis of the disease.

The ovaries are symmetrically reflexed, and begin where the horns of the uterus end, near the vulva. That portion of the sexual tube, known as the semenpocket, is convoluted, and about one-fifth of a millimetre wide, thence the ovary soon narrows to one-twentieth of a millimetre, with which diameter it occupies a few convolutions. The true ovaries now begin, one-fourth of a millimetre wide, and meander one branch forward and one branch backward to end near the neck and anus respectively.

1, rectum.

m, anus.
n, testicle.

o, terminus of tail.

p, beginning of ejaculatory duct.
4, male accessory organ.

r, four anterior male papillæ.

s, ejaculatory duct.

t, three median male papillæ.

u, three posterior male papillæ.

v, spicula, side view.

w, terminus of male.

a, one of the spicula, front view.
y, ?

2, male accessory organ, see q.

tail of the male differs from that of the female in being pointed and apiculate. The nearly circular supplementary male organ is flattened on the posterior side, where there is also a break in its contour. The diameter of this organ is one-third as great as that of the body, and its location is described by saying that it is exactly ventral, and that its centre is in front of the anus a distance equal to one-half the length of the tail. There are ten pairs of papillæ, as follows:

Pre-anal.-One pair opposite the anterior part of the supplementary

organ.

One pair opposite the posterior part of the supplementary organ.

One pair a trifle in front of the anus.

Post-anal.-On the anterior half of the tail four pairs, three showing as broad ribs to the bursa, and the fourth near the base of the middle pair of ribs; the anterior ribs are opposite the anus, while the posterior pair is just in front of the middle of the tail. Half-way between these latter and the end of the tail occur three other pairs of small papillæ, one of which is specially small. In profile the bursa is inconspicuous, but may be seen to originate opposite the anterior part of the supplementary organ, and to extend thence to near the end of the tail. The two equal slender spicula are 1-2 millimetres long and 20 μ wide; while the blunt tips are only 12 μ wide, the proximal ends are 36μ wide. The ejaculatory duct is 9 millimetres long and half a millimetre wide. The single testicle on a male 40 millimetres long, meanders to within 7 millimetres of the head, and is one-fifth of a millimetre wide. Most of the features of this description are well set forth in Fig. 7, which the reader may consult with the aid of a magnifier if necessary.

Habitat.-In the small intestine of the common fowl, all over the world.

The following are particulars of a small worm found in the intestine of a fowl along with adult H. inflexa, and appears to be a smaller specimen than has hitherto been described.

.2

6 1-6

5 mm. 2.1 2.6 18

1-5 (?) 8.4 Y 96. The colourless skin was marked by plain transverse striæ barely resolvable with moderately high powers, such as a Zeiss D. There were no hairs on the body. The conoid neck ended in a somewhat rounded head not set off from the body by any distinct constriction. There were no cephalic setæ. A number of low flat circular papillæ occurred on the three lips. I saw no lateral organs, and there were no eyes. The pharynx resembled that common in the free-living genus Monhystera. The nearly cylindrical oesophagus was barely swollen in the posterior part, thus showing a rudimentary bulb. Though the cardiac column was not very distinct, its position was easily made out on account of the difference in colour between the esophagus and the intestine. The finely granular intestine was half as wide as the body. The rectum was twice as long as the anal body diameter. Nothing was made out concerning the ventral gland. The position of the brain remains uncertain. The irregularly conical tail ended in an acute point.

50

1.1 4.3 14. '47.' 87.
1.5 2.2 4.3 4. 17

6-8 mm.

2. Heterakis papillosa, Bloch. The skin shows fine transverse striæ, 2 μ apart, and also crossed oblique striæ at least in the vicinity of the salient wings. There are no hairs on the body. The

conoid neck ends in a subtruncate head not set off from the body by any perceptible constriction. There are no cephalic setæ. Of the three large hemispherical lips the dorsal is the smaller; each lip bears a minute papilla. No lateral organs were seen. There are no eyes. Each of the lips appears to be armed on the lower part of its inner surface with a tooth. The bases of these teeth are opposite the bases of the lips. The oesophagus is cylindroid to the ob-pyriform cardiac swelling; while the tube is only half as wide as the head, the cardiac bulb is half as wide as the base of the neck. The œsophagus has a plain lining, and is separated from the intestine by a deep constriction. The granular intestine is half as wide as the body, but is swollen at the commencement so as to form

a rather large cardiac cavity. The ventral gland empties through a fairly well developed ampulla and a pore situated just behind the oblique nervering. The longitudinal lines are marked by prominent so-called "wings" of cuticle. The conical tail tapers from near the rather inconspicuous vulva to the pointed terminus. The anus is rather inconspicuous. No tail-glands were seen. The vagina passes forward a distance equal to

the width of the body, or a little more, and then forks, and each of the two branches at a further distance, equal to half the width of the body, presents a valve leading to one of the uteri. The two uteri extend, one forward to within a neck-length of the cardia, and the other backward to within half a tail-length of the anus, and even in adults are rather slender, holding the eggs in a single or double row. The eggs are 40 x 72μ, that is, one-fifth as long as the body is wide, while the shell is 4μ thick. They do not undergo segmentation, it appears, while in the body of the mother. These facts enable us to at once distinguish these eggs from those of H. inflexa, even where they occur together in the same excremant, which is a matter of importance, if it becomes necessary to determine what particular worm infests a given fowl. After the last above-described flexure the ovaries are coiled back and forth across the body. The tail of the male is conoid from the con

1.1 4.5 15 M 94. 1.5 2-2 46 44 2

6. to 8. mm.

spicuously elevated anus. No candal glands were seen. The projecting button-shaped male supplementary organ is one-third as far in front of the anus as the pointed terminus is behind it, and when seen ventrally is onethird as wide as the body, and appears to possess distinct oblique muscles, suggesting suctorial functions. The papillæ are arranged as follows:

Pre-anal. Two pairs surrounding the supplementary organ.

One pair, sub-median, as far again from the anus as those just mentioned.

Post-anal. Two pairs, small, near the end of the bursa; one pair, half way from these to the anus; one pair half-way between the two groups just mentioned; six pairs near the anus. (See fig. 8). The bursa extends from somewhat in front of the supplementary organ to the middle of the tail, and when seen in profile appears nearly half as wide as the body. Of the two unequal spicula, the right is three to four times as long as the left, the latter being somewhat shorter than the tail; both are slender, flat, slightly cephalated at the proximal ends, and tipped with a sigmoid apiculum.

Habitat.-Caeca of the common fowl throughout the world.

Chemical Notes.

F. B. GUTHRIE,

PARIS GREEN.

PURCHASERS of Paris green, for spraying purposes, should be aware that a compound is sold under this name for use as a pigment. The pigment contains varying proportions of Barium sulphate (Barytes or heavy spar). A sample obtained from a Sydney firm contained nearly 15 per cent. of this ingredient.

Barium sulphate increases the value of Paris green as a pigment, as it gives it a better covering-power, but it is quite valueless as an insecticide, as the mixture contains only about 45 per cent. arsenic (arsenious acid).

Purchasers of Paris green should, therefore, be particular to ask for pure Paris green for use as an insecticide, or for spraying. This should contain about 56 per cent. arsenic.

Both Elliott Bros. and the Australian Drug Company keep the pure article in stock.

Analyses of samples obtained from these sources gave in one case 548, and in the other 55 per cent. arsenious acid, either of which are sufficiently near the theoretical quantity of arsenic to be effectual if used in the proportions usually recommended for spraying mixtures.

If, however, the pigment is used, the results will probably be disappointing.

BAT GUANO.

THE following analysis of a sample of bat-guano shows the characteristics of this class of guano.