A flora and fauna within living animals

Abstract

ABSTRACT That there are animals which inhabit the bodies of other animals as their natural locality has long been known. Many of these are so obvious as to be popularly recognized under the name of “Worms.” It is, however, only since the extensive employment of the microscope in aiding vision, that any large addition has been made to those generally known. Not only is it found that each species of animal has its peculiar parasitic animal and plant, but every species of animal appears to have a Flora and a Fauna of its own. Formerly a country was necessary to supply the materials of a Fauna or Flora, but with the microscope in hand the stomach of an insect affords abundance of peculiar species of animals and plants for such a purpose. Dr. Leidy’s work is not an account of all the species of plants found in living animals, but an account of certain new genera and species of plants discovered by himself in the stomach and intestines of a few species of insects. In an introduction, Dr. Leidy refers to the plants and animals of the human body. These are treated of at length in the works of Dujardin,* Diesing,-†- and Robin.‡