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
It is often thus that science makes its clear advances, since a
master-mind is needed to set others on the right track. The embryos
of Cucullanus and Dracunculus bear a close resemblance to each other,
and the similarity of the types is continued on, though not in the
same degree, in the next stage of larval growth, after ecdysis. The
higher larvæ of both have their tails trifurcate at the tip, the head
of the Dracunculus-larva being distinguished by the presence of a pair
of papillæ. In the case of Cucullanus the embryos are, according to
Leuckart, passively transferred to the stomach of Cyclops by the mouth;
but in the case of Dracunculus, Fedschenko saw the embryo in the act of
perforating the bodies of the little crustacea at the ventral surface,
where the segments are bound together by a thin and easily penetrated
connecting membrane. The larvæ then proceed to coil themselves within
the limbs, as many as six or even a dozen of the parasites being
occasionally found within the body of a single crustacean host. When
they have reached full larval growth they measure about 1/25″ in length.
Of course, after attaining this stage, it is a matter of conjecture
as to the precise way in which their final destiny is accomplished.
Fedschenko fed dogs and cats with the infected crustacea, but failed
to rear Dracunculi in these animals. Clearly, these carnivora were
unsuitable hosts. Could Fedschenko have experimented on man the result
would probably have been very different. Arguing from what happens in
the case of Cucullanus amongst fishes, and Trichina in man, there can
be little doubt that all the further and final changes undergone by
the larvæ are accomplished within the human host. These changes are
usually, if not invariably, consequent upon a direct transference of the
infested entomostraca along with water used as drink. Thus, it must at
once be evident that the simple sanitary precaution of filtering water
before use is amply sufficient to ensure the prevention of attacks of
dracontiasis or the guinea-worm disease. The theosophical remedy of
Moses against this invasion by fiery serpents, as the worms were called
in his time, and the modern prophylactic measures dictated alike by
science and common sense, thus stand in striking contrast the one to the
other. In the nature of things it must ever remain that unreason and
reason will select diametrically opposite methods of action, equally, no
doubt, with the good intention of bringing about beneficial results.
From what has now been advanced, it will be seen that as regards the
mode of infection the views categorically expressed in my previous work
(‘Entozoa,’ p. 387) cannot be maintained. What, however, is there stated
in respect of _treatment_ still holds good in the main, even as regards
prophylaxis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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