Transactions and Proceedings and Report of the Royal Society Of

,T-.,f->v . ^ fxbrarD of tlje gtuseum OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY, AT HARVARD COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,' MASS. The gift of No.J'^^Z . /lll^,jû.rLU/7^/t^Y_. TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS AND REPORT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY Of SOOTH AUSTRALIA. "VOL. "VI (FOR 1882-83.) ISSUED DECEMBEK, 188 3. G. KOBEETSON, 103, KING WILLIAM STKEET. '^'^ 1883. Parcels for transmission to the Royal Society of South Aus- tralia, from Europe and America, should be addressed "per "W. G. Rigby, care Messrs. Thos. Meadows & Co., 35, Milk Street, Gheapside, London." . Jopl ôdetg of côttt^ Jttstralia. fatton: HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN. fia-fEtton: HIS EXCELLENCY SIR WILLIAM ROBINSON, K.C.M.G., C.B., &c. OFFICERS. [ELECTED OCTOBER 2, 1883.1 H. T. WHITTELL, ESQ., M.D. Wxcz-'§xmhmt$t PROF. H. LAMB, M.A. | E. C. STIRLING, ESQ., M.D., F.R.C.S i^n. ^âetato;: ion. %xm$ViXn. W. L. CLELAND, ESQ., M.B. THOS. D. SMEATON, ESQ. (Qt^tx W^mhzxs of C0ttndl: D. B. ADAMSON, ESQ. PROF. TATE, F.G.S., F.L.S.. &c. WALTER RUTT, ESQ. (National Science Director) C. TODD, C.M.G., F.R.A.S. (Re- presentative Governor) MR. A. MOLINEUX. CONTENTS. Dr. J. Davies Thomas : Hydatid Disease in Australia 1 D. B. Adamson: Improvements in the construction of Carre's Di- electric Machine 27 P. W. Andrews : Notes on the Night-Parrot {Geopsittacus occidentalis) 29 Baron Sir F. von Mueller : Diagnoses of a new genus and two species of Compositae from South Australia . 31 Baron Sir F. von Mueller : Diagnosis of a New Genus of Verbenaceae from Arnheim Land .. .. .. .. .> .. ..33 James Stirling : The Proteaceae of the Victorian Alps 35 Dr. H. T, "Whittell: Notes of the Dissection of a Compound Ascidian found in St. Vincent Gulf (plate i.) . 43 Professor K. Tate : Descriptions of some of New Species of Squilla from South Australia (plate ii.) 48 John Haslam : House Sanitation 54 J. G. 0. Tepper : Botanical Notes relating to South Australia . 65 F. W. Andrews: Notes on some Bare Birds inhabiting South Australia 69 T. C. Cloud : A Catalogue of South Australian Minerals 72 Professor B. Tate : List of Plants unrecorded for Southern Eyre-Penin- sula 94 Professor R. Tate : A list of unrecorded Plants and of New Localities for Eare Plants in the Soath-East ..95 Professor R. Tate : List of some Plants inhabiting the North-Eastern part of the Lake Torrens Basin 100 Baron Mueller and Professor Tate : Diagnoses of some New Plants from South Australia . , . 107 Professor R. Tate: Additions to the Flora of South Australia .. ..110 Professor R. Tate: The Botany of Kangaroo Island, with Historical Sketch of its Discovery and Settlement, and Notes on its Geology (plate iii.) 116 . IV. Miscellaneous Contributions to the Natural History of South Australia— Zoology. Note on the Occurrence of Psalidura in South Australia . 172 Notes on three South Australian Coleopters destructive to Vegetation 172 List of Marine Mollusca, Kottnest, Freemantle 173 Botany. Bibliographical Notes refuting the alleged alien nature of Orobanche australiana and Verbena officinalis .. 174 Notes on Microstemma tuberosum .. 175 Note on the presence of Tannin in Muehlenbechia Cunninghamii 175 Hydatid Disease in Australia. By J. Daties Thomas, M.D., London. [Eead October 3, and November 7, 1882.J [abeidged.] The Egjal Society has on several occasions shown an interest in questions respecting the common weal and health, and has, I feel sure, contributed to no small degree in educating the public on some matters closely connected wdth general hygiene. I therefore venture to think that any communication which has for its object the prevention of disease, pain, and death will meet with lenient criticism and friendly reception from the members of this Society. Apart from the importance of the hydatid as a cause of disease in man and stock, its study is of great interest from a purely scientific point of view ; so that any hesitancy I may feel is not because the subject is bald of interest, but rather lest the writer may prove unequal to his theme. In dealing with hydatids, there are two points of view from which the subject may be regarded. Thus we may consider it merely from a biological standpoint, and study the parasite itself, its mode of origin, growth, and death, in the various phases of its life-history ; or we may consider it from a medical aspect, as causing a disease often great in its painfulness and terrible in its danger to man and beast. In connection with this latter view we might further discuss (1) the mode of its prevention, and (2) the best mode of treat- ment when it is present. The subject will, however, be pre- sented to your notice only as a brief summary of what I have been able to learn about the prevalence of hydatid disease in man, and chieily as concerns the Southern Hemisphere; and I shall also endeavour to point out how therrisk of infection may be reduced to more moderate limits. On our way we shall see that there are many points upon which more information is needed, and in the investigation of which some members of this Society may do good service to science and to public health. Dr. Thomas then gave an exhaustive account of the natural history of Echinococcus, as far as present knowledge of the — subject permits, and briefly summarised tlie matter as follows: What is known as tbe hydatid cyst is really the cystic or bladder-worm phase of development of a minute tapeworm which inhabits the upper jârt of the small intestine of the dog. Three varieties of the hydatid have been described, viz., the Acephalocystic form, where no scolices or daughter-cysts are found ; the variety called Echinococcus Scolicipariens, where brood-capsules and scolices are present ; and finally, Echino- coccus Altricipariens, where daughter-cysts are developed. There are good reasons, however, for the opinion that these forms do not mark distinct species, but merely variations of one species. I may remind you also of the remarkable transmuta- tions and transmigrations undergone during the complete life- cycle of this parasite ; how the adult tapeworm inhabits in great numbers the small intestine of the dog, but in which animal the hydatid cyst has never been found; that the last joint filled with ripe ova passes from the intestine of the dog into the outer world, and that the eggs are conveyed by the various ex- ternal forces of nature into drinking water, and that they are scattered on grass and herbage ; that the egg becomes swallowed by some herbivorous animal or by man, and that then the egg-shell becomes digested in the stomach, thus releasing the six-hooked boring embryo formerly enclosed within it. That the embryo begins at once to bore its way into the coats of the stomach until it reaches the inside of a small blood vessel, where it is caught in the current of blood, and conveyed to the capillaries of the portal system within the liver ; here the majority rest and develope into hydatids. Some of them, however, pass through the capillaries of the liver and enter the general and pulmonary circulation. In this way it follows that an}' organ of the body may become the resting place of an embryo, which proceeds to continue its development into a hydatid. We shall find from the statistics of the disease that the lungs, heart, brain, spleen, kidney, muscles, and bones are all liable to be attacked, although by no means in a like propor- tion. The six-hooked embryo then proceeds to change into a hydatid cyst. This in turn produces by a process of budding the Echinococci. The Echinococci when transplanted into the small intestine of the dog develope into the Scolices. These now form joints, two or three in number, and the last one of these contains the ripe eggs. To such curious series of • changes Steenstrup gave the name of the "alternation of generations." In sheep and oxen the cystic form of the parasite exists in the liver, lung, and other organs ; but they never liave the little tapeworm in the bowel. The hydatid lives, not on chyme, as the tapeworm does in the intestine of the dog, but on fluids secreted by itself from tbe blood of its host. It is extremely important to remember that sbeep and oxen get the hydatid, and the dog the tapeworm. JN'o one has ever seen this rule reversed in the ease of Echinococcus. Man, in his relation to Echinococcus, resembles the sheep and ox, and not the dog, for he gets the hydatid cyst, but not the little tapeworm. The great practical fact is this : —That if there were no dogs we should not get hydatid disease. Eating underdone mutton or beef can never give us hydatids, though it might give us certain kinds of tapeworms. The dog, however, would not get Taenia Echinococcus if it did not swallow living scolices from hydatid cysts. Kow, if all this be correct, we can see that the existence of a great many dogs, sheep, oxen, pigs, &g., in a country produce favourable conditions for the propagation of hydatid disease in man, for the greater the number of dogs the greater the number of hosts for the tapeworm form, and in like manner the greater the number of sheep, &c., the greater the number of hosts for the cystic form. There are four chief factors which determine the spread of hydatid disease in any country : —1. The num.ber of dogs in the country. 2. The opportunities that exist for enabling the eggs, bred in the dog, to be swallowed by the sheep.

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