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
Whilst very many flies, bugs, lice, and fleas persecute animals, not
a few of them also attack man. Several of the species are genuine
parasites, others are semi-parasitic, and others, again, are altogether
outside the border-land of parasitism in the ordinary sense of the term.
In fact, it becomes difficult to say where the line of parasitism should
be drawn. I cannot, however, ignore all notice of the insect tormentors,
whether strictly parasitic or not.
At least fifty different species have been regarded as playing the rôle
of parasitism in man. Amongst the Coleopterous parasites none is more
authentic than _Blaps mortisaga_. At least half a dozen such cases
have occurred. Mr Hope’s catalogue of insects producing parasitism in
man gives three examples of _scolechiasis_ from this source. Sir J.
R. Cormack published a fourth case, and I have recorded a fifth. In
this instance I received the living larva from Dr Horne, of Barnsley,
who procured it from an infant eleven weeks old. In my ‘Introductory
Treatise’ I have alluded to the case of the girl Riordan, who not only
passed per anum upwards of 1200 larvæ, but also several perfect insects.
The case was first reported by Pickells, Thomson, and Bellingham. One
of the other authentic cases, in which only a few larvæ were present,
was recorded by Patterson, of Belfast, and the third case by Bateman.
Mr Hope’s ‘Catalogue’ originally appeared in the ‘Transactions of the
Entomological Society,’ being afterwards published in the pages of the
‘London Medical Gazette,’ 1837. Patterson’s case was also, I believe,
first communicated to the Entomological Society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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