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
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--Larval Filariæ in various stage of growth from
the mosquito; _a_ to _d_, representing the first stage of metamorphosis
during the first 36 hours, _e_ to _o_, the changes occurring during the
second stage, to the close of the third day; _p_ to _t_, forms seen
during the third stage of metamorphosis from the fourth day onwards. The
figs. _u_, _v_, represent the head and tail only, whilst _t_ shows the
young Filaria in an advanced stage, and drawn to a much smaller scale,
than the others which are here magnified about 125 diameters. Much
reduced from Manson’s original figures.]
How completely Manson took the initiative in this part of the work is
evident even from Lewis’s own later observations. In a paper published
in March, 1878, Dr Lewis, writing from Calcutta and speaking of the
rôle of the mosquitoes, says:--“I had repeatedly examined, in a cursory
fashion, these and other suctorial insects, but had not observed
any parasites suggestive of these embryo-hæmatozoa, hence, when, on
receipt of a communication from Dr Manson a couple of months ago, a
renewed search was made, I was surprised to find that four out of eight
mosquitoes, captured at random in one of the servants’ houses, harboured
specimens of hæmatozoa to all appearances identical with those found in
man in this country. After this, however, several days elapsed before
any mosquitoes could be obtained which contained these embryo-nematoids,
and the specimens obtained on the next occasion were devoid of the
enveloping sheath, which appears to characterise the kind found in
man out here, and apparently, according to Dr Manson, in China also.”
Further on Lewis also remarks, “When the insect is caught shortly
after feeding and the contents of its stomach examined microscopically,
the hæmatozoa, if present, will be observed to manifest very active
movements, which may possibly continue for several hours on the slide.
If the insect be kept for twenty-four hours before examination it is
probable that the movements of the parasites will be more sluggish,
and their form probably altered owing to irregular contractions and
dilatations of their substance--changes which may also occasionally be
observed when embryo-hæmatozoa are preserved on a glass slide, and they
may sometimes be kept alive thus, if in suitable media, for two or three
days. When the insect is not examined till the third day, the contained
parasites will probably manifest marked signs of disintegration--and
possibly every indication of life will have disappeared from many
of the specimens. After the third or fourth day I have not seen any
active specimens of these entozoa in the stomach or in any part of the
alimentary canal of the mosquito; those which remain have undergone
more or less fatty degeneration, and are readily stained with eosin,
which, as far as my experience goes, is not the case so long as they are
alive and active. After the fourth or fifth day it is very rare that
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