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
On the 28th of August, 1877, I received a small collection of entozoa.
The box contained the promised Filariæ, and also eight bottles filled
with various intestinal worms taken from animals. The Filariæ were
enclosed in four small tubes and preserved in glycerine. Three of the
tubes (marked 1, 2, 3) contained sexually-mature worms, the fourth being
labelled “Sediment from adult _Fil. sang._--young and ova.” I described
their contents in succession. Thus, on the 6th of September, 1877, I
examined the Filaria in tube No. 3. The specimen was injured and in four
portions, these collectively measuring three inches in length. Although,
to the naked eye, the worm had appeared to Dr Bancroft to be of the
thickness of an ordinary human hair, yet I found it about 1/90″ at the
thickest part. It was a female. At the same time I examined the specimen
in tube No. 1. This was also a female. Towards the centre of the body a
hernial protrusion of the uterine horns and intestine had taken place.
In a lithograph sent by Dr Bancroft this specimen was figured and
described as the “parent worm of the _Filaria sanguinis_, emitting young
Filaria from two loops.” Later on I examined the contents of tube No. 2.
In it I found one tolerably perfect female Filaria, and also a delicate
shred forming part of one of the uterine horns of another worm. This
filament measured one inch and a half in length, and was coiled round
the complete worm. On transferring it to a watch-glass containing water,
hundreds of embryos made their escape. Owing to the transparency of the
tissues I had much difficulty in finding the reproductive outlet, and
the effort to find it was all the greater because Bancroft’s figure had
misled me. At length I found the vagina and its orifice close to the
head (about 1/20″ from it), the anal orifice being placed within the
1/90″ from the extremity of the tail. The vaginal pouch, 1/100″ long,
was crowded with embryos, and a constriction marked its junction with
the uterus proper, which appeared to divide lower down at a distance of
1/10″ from the head. Towards the tail a fold of the tuba Fallopii was
seen to extend to within 1/20″ of the extremity. All sections of the
uterine system were crowded with germs, eggs, and embryos in their usual
relative situations.
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