RHABDITIFORM EMBRYOS.
As the parasite occurs in the stools as the rhabditiform embryo, and probably never in any form (excepting rarely after a purge, when the passage of the parthenogenetic mother worm has been reported by one or two observers), it follows that the thorough understanding of this form is most essential to diagnosis; and I have, therefore, described it below at some length.In a properly prepared specimen the embryo appears as a clear, almost hyaline, nematode, completely transparent and possessed of a very active motility, swimming among the granular detritus, and pushing aside the smaller obstacles in its path, and turning aside to pass the larger ones, when its progress is arrested by an obstacle of considerable size. The consistency of the nematode seems scarcely to exceed that of protoplasm, the parasite quivering like jelly with every movement, or when the microscopic stage was jarred or