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
The worm may be described as a small nematode, the males measuring 3/8″
or rather more, whilst the females extend to very nearly 1/2″ (12 mm.).
The head is pointed and tapering, and bent forward, having the mouth
directed towards the ventral aspect. The oral opening is armed with four
asymmetrically disposed, unequally-sized, horny, conical, converging
teeth. The neck is continuous with the cylindrical body, which is 1/80″
in thickness. The body terminates in a straight cone-shaped, or rather
sharply-pointed tail in the female, the caudal extremity of the male
ending in a partially inflexed, blunt point. In the male there is a
cup-shaped, bilobed bursa, the membranes of which are supported by
eleven chitinous rays, ten being simple, whilst the median, or odd one,
is bifurcated at the summit. The mode of reproduction is viviparous.
Adult males and females occur in the proportion of one of the former to
three of the latter.
[Illustration: FIG. 41.--Male _Dochmius duodenalis_, with bursa
separately enlarged. After Küchenmeister.]
As above mentioned, it was Griesinger who first pointed out the clinical
importance of this entozoon. He first explained the manner in which
the worm produces anæmia, the persons attacked losing blood as if
they were being bitten by innumerable small leeches. Like the rest of
their kindred, these worms are veritable blood-suckers. In the first
instance the views of Griesinger met with opposition, but they have
since received abundant confirmation. Whilst Küchenmeister’s ‘Manual’
furnishes an excellent account of the disorder as known in Europe, we
are chiefly indebted to Wucherer for what is known of the disorder in
Brazil. The experiences recorded in the ‘Deutsches Archiv für Klinische
Medicin’ for Sept. 27th, 1872 (s. 379-400), were amongst the last that
appeared from the pen of that gifted and amiable physician. As little
or no notice of his writings appears to have been taken by professional
men in this country, I depart somewhat from the design of this work
when I venture to abstract a few of the clinical particulars which
he has supplied. Their importance in relation to sanitary science is
obvious, inasmuch as these parasites are introduced into the human body
by drinking impure water, or, at least, water which either contains the
free larvæ of the worm, or the intermediary bearers that harbor the
larvæ.
It should be borne in mind that Dubini’s original discovery was made at
Milan in 1838, whilst Griesinger’s recognition of the worm as a cause
of the Egyptian chlorosis resulted from a post-mortem examination made
on the 17th of April, 1851.
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