The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-24 00:00:00

EXPERIMENTS O,V ENTOZOA.

The Academy of Sciences has received a curious
communication from MM. Pouchet and Verrier,
sen., on the migrations of entozoa, or parasites,
especially the tape worm and similar genera. Va-
rious doubtful theories have been propounded, and
even admitted, on this difficult subject ; thus a
naturalist has affirmed that tmnias may be produced
in a dog by feeding it with the ccenures found in
sheep ; whence he concludes that the two creatures
are the same. But the chief object of our authors
has been to subject to a new verification the opin-
ions held concerning the Teenia serrata, a tape
worm which is frequent in dogs, and the Conurus
cerebralis, a vesicular and polycephalous worm,
very common in sheep, on which it produces the
symptoms of turnsick, a disease in which the ani-
mal turns round and round till it falls exhausted to
the ground. According to naturalists, dogs eat
the heads of sheep afflicted with this ccenurus,
which thus enters their intestines. Each of the
heads of the ccenures then separates from the
trunk, grows to an enormous length, and becomes a
tania. The rings of this teenia being from time to
time expulsed by the dog, fall on the grass which
is nibbled by the sheep. The eggs contained in
these rings are hatched in the intestines of the rumi-
nant, producing microscopic larva which travel up
to the head, perforating ell the tissues they find on
their route, and even the base of the cranium.
Having thus reached the brain, they are trans-
formed into the ccenures which are to cause the
animal's death by turnsick. This' circle of trans-
formations and peregrinations is evidently too
complicated to be accepted without confirmation,
and MM. Pouchet and Verrier have, by a new
series of experiments, dealt a heavy, .and it
would seem a fatal, blow to this theory. First,
they quote cases in which they administered the
ccenures in question to dogs, and, after 16 days,
found the latter afflicted with teenias varying in
length from 2 to 80 millimetres ; after 23 days, the
lengths varied from 4 millimetres to 60 centimetres !
How could such an enormous difference in growth
be accounted for on the principle that the emu-
rus produces the tmnia P In another series of ex-
periments 60 heads of ccenures were administered
to a dog, and 78 tasnias were discovered ; again, 100
heads of ccenures produced 237 tmnias. These re-
sults can hardly be reconciled with the supposition
that the ccenurus produces the tmnia ; and other
experiments have proved that tronias introduced
into the intestines of the sheep do not cause any
coenures to migrate to the brain. Our authors are
still continuing their experiments.

OLUNTEERING IN THE EAST

INDIES.

The following is an extract from a letter from
Bombay, dated the 26th ult.:—"l believe it is not
generally known to the English public that a little
band of warriors has lately .prung up here, which
caough the force may be, will, with umislanh
drill, be of great use when afloat in defending them-
selves from privateers, and at the time of the late.
Indian mutiny would have been invaluable in iA.
stilling some slight degree of confidence into the
minds of the panic-stricken public who had t'ne ill-
fortune to have their residences placed outside the
fort on that momentous occasion. The employes of
the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamships,
when in port, have, in deference to the wishes of
the directors of that company as expressed through,
their able superintendent here, Captain Black, gone
through a series of chill—that is to say, three times
a week—on board her Majesty's East Indirm ship
Adjdaha, at great gun practice, under the experi-
enced tuition of the gunnery lieutenant or. that ves-
sel, Lieut. Robison, I.N. (who, by tbb by, I hear
holds an A 1 certificate from the Excellent), and
at small-arms practice under an able gunner.
To have seen at early dawn about 100 Eng-
lishmen going through their facings, extending
skirmishers,' and forming squares' around the
antiquated mango trees with which the neighbour-
hood of Mazagon abounds, would have convinced
the most sceptical that it was their firm determina-
tion to enter into it with spirit as far as they were
individually concerned, and endeavour to carry out
Lord C. Paget's grand object, which is to form part
of a well-educated and practical body of men (these
11 are his lordship's words), trained in the science, so
that in time of war they would prove an adjunct to
the Royal Navy, and also be prepared at all times
to defend themselves, in case of need, from any of
those daring privateers that might have the audacity
to follow the San Jacinto's example, and fire across
their ship's bows. The necessary machinery, in the
shape of armaments and projectiles, with a suitable
powder magazine, which is in course of construction,.
will in another day or two be placed on board the
company's steamship Pottinger, lying off Mazagon4
in this port ; and opportunities will often occur tis.
give the men target practice, so that they may at no
far distant period become members of the gyeat
national force just established, showing that the
words of advice which the Secretary to the Admi-
craltycnoie,neveyed in his Anglesey letter to the packetcompanies, onipa
in answer to the vote of thanks to him
passed by the shipowners, and masters at their
meeting held et the London Tavern, were received
as intended and strictly acted up to."