Owing to the comparatively little use made of the flesh of the goat in this country, the helminthic parasites of this host have been far less studied than those found in other domestic animals. In other countries, where the goat plays a far greater economic rôle, a large number of parasitic worms have been recorded.

During 1928 I was able, as Milner Research Fellow in the Department of Helminthology of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, to make an extended survey of the parasites of man and the domestic animals in the British West Indies. A report on the former has already been published (1929). In examining the parasites of domestic animals, I was given every facility by the local authorities, and I am especially indebted to Captain H. V. Metivier, B.Sc., M.R.C.V.S., of Trinidad, whose assistance and knowledge of the local parasitic problems was invaluable.

In November, 1926, the writer observed the active revival of larvæ of Tylenchus dipsaci in water after being kept in a dry condition since September, 1920; a period of just over 6 years. These almost adult larvæ, which had been collected from Narcissus bulbs, were richly supplied with an abundance of reserve food bodies in the wall of the intestine and an attempt was made to determine the nature of these reserves. Various tests were carried out with different chemical reagents and stains and it was finally found that they were composed of fats in the form of small, spherical droplets of oil of variable size. Following these observations, as opportunity arose, other plant-parasitic and free-living nematodes have been examined for the presence of fats in and around the intestinal wall.

The writer established the genus Cylindrogaster in 1927 for the reception of a nematode found in cultures of rat's fæces. Its principal distinguishing features were the possession of very long buccal rods and an elongate, cylindrical, muscular first œsophageal bulb. The male possessed 10 caudal papillæ arranged in three groups disposed in a manner exactly similar to that of the caudal papilæ in many species of Diplogaster, Odontopharynx longicaudata and Tylopharynx striata.

The lesions associated with the migration of the larvæ of Ascaris megalocephala through the tissues of the host were studied in rabbits, guinea pigs and mice. In addition to studying the changes in those organs directly invaded by the larvæ in the course of migration, an organ remote from the migratory route but exposed to the action of any toxic products elaborated by the larvæ was also examined. In each case therefore, sections were prepared from (a) liver, (b) lungs and (c) kidneys.

Preliminary studies in Lancashire and Cheshire (Smith and Prentice, 1929) have indicated that under certain conditions there is a positive association between the disease known as “potato sickness” and the intensity of root eelworm, Heterodera schachtii Schmidt, as measured by the cyst content of the soil. This association does not appear to be constant, as a moderately high cyst content may occur in the absence of obvious disease. It has also been found (Smith and Miles, 1929) that under conditions prevailing in the North West of England the cyst content of the soil increases only after a crop which is not a total failure.