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
Whatever notions people may entertain respecting the dignity of the
human race, there is no gainsaying the fact that we share with the lower
animals the rather humiliating privilege and prerogative of entertaining
a great variety of parasites. These are for the most part entozoal in
habit. As the parasites are apt to cause suffering to the bearer, a
superstitious age sought to interpret their presence as having some
connection with human wrong-doing. We can now afford to smile at such
erroneous ideas. The intimate relation subsisting between parasitic
forms dwelling in man and animals, and their interdependence upon one
another, alone suffices to preclude the idea that parasites have been
arbitrarily placed within the human bearer. It would seem, indeed, that
our existence is essential to the welfare and propagation of certain
species of parasites. Possibly it is only by accepting the hypothesis
of “Natural Selection” that we can escape the somewhat undignified
conclusion that the entozoa were expressly created to dwell in us, and
also that we were in part designed and destined to entertain them. View
the matter as we may, the internal parasites of man and animals strictly
conform to a few well-known types of structure, but these types branch
out into infinitely varied specific forms. The vulgar mind sees nothing
attractive in the morphology and organisation of a parasitic worm, and
common-place conceptions of the beautiful cannot be expected to embrace
within their narrow grasp the marvelous harmony and order that pervade
the structure and economy of the individual members of this remarkable
class of beings.
SECTION I.--TREMATODA (Flukes).
_Fasciola hepatica_, Linneus.--The first form I have to consider is
the common liver fluke. The part this entozoon plays in the production
of disease will be fully stated when treating of the parasites of the
sheep and other ruminants. About twenty instances of its occurrence
in the human body have been recorded. It has been found beneath the
skin in the sole of the foot (Giesker), and also under the scalp
(Harris), and behind the ear (Fox). Its more frequent seat is in the
liver and gall-ducts (Pallas, Brera, Bidloo, Malpighi) and gall-bladder
(Partridge). The alleged cases by Bauhin, Wepfer, and Chabert are
spurious, as is probably also that given by Mehlis. Duval’s case appears
to be genuine, but the occurrence of the worm in the portal vein was
accidental. Dr Murchison has recorded a case, occurring at St Thomas’s
Hospital, where a solitary specimen was found in the liver. Dr H. V.
Carter also met with the worm in a young Hindoo.
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