AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 77, 25 November 1864, Page 3

AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

TO TH^ EI>ITOB Or/ftHBiSOC-THIiAirD. TI3CBS. , : . ,; Sib.-t^-I have. not the slightest doubfc that those of "your readers who ; bestowed a little more than ; the usual attention to the perusal of the "Extra- . ordinary Story," in Wednesday's issue of your , widely circulated paper, must have felt rather un■comfortable when they sat down to their dinner, jat the idea: of the -possibility, conveyed in that ar- , iticlei of feeding perhaps half a dozen httle croco- : ddesdn their respective stomachs. Haying read i ;the article with the necessary: attention, and found l iuothjng.in.it to astonish any man with common seUsej T offer the following succihctr remarks on ' the subject of this article -with the two-fold view of, first— removing the proximate, cause of the i unpleasant sensations andr-emotions producediri. ■ those who,- taking the .matter seriously, are anxious to preserve trie; weliare of their digestive f organs ; and secondly— of satisfyi g the irritated curiosity of. those who have troubled their brainabout the real -existence of reptiles in human stomachs, withoutarriving at a satisfactory'conclusion. .. I In order to place this -mysterious phenomenon in its proper, light we must go -back a little, andfirst investigate what kind of animals inhabit tlie different parts of the human body, inviting themselves to our dinners and suppers, in a far more impudent manner than the ?' parasite " ,of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Itis only-top certain that, there exists, a. most .formidable array of parasitical animals of all sizes, shapes, and colors, " sponging " not only on the products of our digestion, but also feeding on the organs; of digestion themselves, if there is a dearth of their usual rations. You are well a ware that those parasitical animals, indiscriminately caded worms, are unable to continue their existence after they have been ejected from the animal organism in which they arrived kt the highest stage of their individual development. You further know, and are familiar with tlie fact, that all these parasites belong to the rerj- comprehensive elstss of the Arfcieulata. the most distinguished division of which ib com under the general name of Hehninthoid entoioa. : These again, are subdivided into three families, thccestoid worms, with the familiaribur species of tapeworms ; thenematoid worms, with eight varieties, of which the ascaridesare thebestknownn; andthe ; trematoid worms, with their five varieties of dis- ; toma. It is foreign to my subject to enter into any scientific details regarding the entrance of these parasites into our bodies, their modes of reproduction, the varied metamorphoses of their individual forms, and their transmigration from one individual into another. r All these details, though of the highest interest to the student of natural history, would lead me far beyond the limits commonly prescribed to a newspaper letter. -I, therefore, only wish the reader not to lose Bight of the important ■• fact that all, the abovementioned parasitical -worms, belong to that very; low class" of animals called the artieulata, and enjoy no independent existence of their own, but are all, without a single exception, obliged to live on higher animals than themselves. It may be further remarked that the low degree of their organisation is speiially adapted to those limited ; conditions of life presented in the different intestines of tlie animals in which r they aria found.** 1; shah mention here only the most prominent characters of this organisation, the knowledge of : which is indispensable to the understanding of !what follows afterwards. Their-nervous system is very rudimentary, and presents a merely ganglionic character, -, and, as. a- necessary consequence of this, their organs of sensation are not only extremely defective;' but the majority of them entirely wanting ;tlieir digestive organs -consist ol; a simple, straight, intestinal tube uniting the two extremities of their bodies, at sometimes very short jUstah.cesfroinbneaiiotherj theyhaveneitheraheart nor blood vessels, and their circulation is only akind of transudation called endosmosis ; they have no organs of respiration or lungs, and all the air which they take in is conveyed: in the fluids they live in; and lastly, the low state of 'development •iniwhich we find their organs of reproduction is best characterised by what is called tr ue. ,'herth.af phrpditism. Now it is only auimals constructed on thin simple plan of organisation that are" able to live in the interior of the human .body, aud no others but such as stand on a still lower parallel than they do. .; ' -'- '"- ( -;' •*■'••" ; ; But when vri-- are told;, and asked to ibelieve^ that lizards, a high .order, of reptiles, animals belonging to the class of.the vertebrata,; and iorily one; step removed from: the ; class of; the /birds); when we are told that lanimals ; with a welh.developed central nervous system, animals with gills, lungs; and -hearts; animals i with. far advanced organs of locomotion and digestion ; animals with distinctly separated 'organs of generation, and possessing all our five senses ; I -repeat,' when wo are told and asked to believe that animals of. so high an organisation are able to live, and actually do ilive, - in a r state of parasitism; in the human sfomachi it ia< really high? time to remonstrate, and tba^k the very pertinen^'queßtion, what use these : degraded animals make;of . thqir eyes, bars, hings, etc.vin a place where they can neither ; see, hear, or breathe? v ; 'vc-^ \-y.z'-/(\--'. ■■'-..- I ; don't think it necessary to trace Vthe"..: utter absurdity of the" Extraordinary : Story "any further, and 'let the concluding suggestion ; bo sufficient that the birthplace of this .mysterious tA)o, ''which, has a deeideu ; <rnia.-\k. ofrj tfdgar Poe in ':it,i"i» almost identical with'that6fi:tha well known '^avnSlieV, the-'':4oi4ißal«rAV-:--i.'.Bq>:rtf.:--l'W«:--%-'

, .^oj!X,-.then. w§ . are °f genius of" its author who ha* so niaslcily ' arranged the detadiiahdl-'given vsaiehr mihuif tircumstantial evidence of -the case as must aluiobt. force an untutored , mhidjinto. implicit ibeiielW-rlf remain, Sir, yours, etc., .- -, ••: ■, i CHA.KLES W. EOHNER, M.D. Invercargill, 21th Nov,,. 1864 . :-.;■ : — «£•