Parasites: A Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and Animals: Including Some Account of the EctozoaCobbold, T. Spencer (Thomas Spencer)
Science
Parasites: A Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and Animals: Including Some Account of the Ectozoa
Cobbold, T. Spencer (Thomas Spencer)
Helminths; Parasites
Up to the present time no person has seen the _Tænia echinococcus_
in any English dog which has not been previously made the subject of
experiment, but considering the prevalence of hydatid disease amongst
us, there can be no doubt that English dogs are quite as much if not
more infested than continental ones. Probably, at least one per cent.
of our dogs harbour the mature tapeworm. Certainly a great deal of good
might accrue from the acquisition of more extended evidence respecting
the prevalence of this and other forms of entozoa infesting man and
animals in this country.
From Schleissner’s table it appears that hydatids are more frequent in
women than in men. Apparently, it is not so in Australia. As regards
Iceland the explanation must be sought for in the different habits of
life. No doubt, water used as drink by women is constantly obtained from
supplies in the immediate neighbourhood of dwellings, and in localities
to which dogs have continual access. The comparative rarity of the
echinococcus disease amongst sailors is not so much dependent upon the
circumstance that seamen’s diet usually consists of salted provisions,
as upon the fact that these men can seldom have opportunities of
procuring water from localities where dogs abound. In regard to water
drinking, there is ground for believing that the addition of a very
little alcohol is sufficient to destroy the six-hooked embryos of _Tænia
echinococcus_ whilst still _in ovo_; and there is no doubt that water
raised to a temperature of 212° Fahr. will always ensure the destruction
of the larvæ. Boiled water by itself is by no means palatable. The
reason why the upper classes comparatively seldom suffer from hydatids
may be attributed to the circumstance that those few who drink water
take the very proper precaution to see that it is either “pump” or fresh
spring water in which no living six-hooked embryos are likely to exist.
So far as hydatids are concerned, wine and beer drinking is preferable
to water-drinking; yet if water is carefully filtered no evil of the
parasitic kind can possibly result from its imbibition. An ordinary
charcoal filter will effectually prevent the passage of the ova, since
their diameter is nearly 1/370 of an inch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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