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
From the size and almost leathery texture of the two flukes which were
in the first instance submitted to my notice, I at once recognised the
species; but as they were spirit-specimens, I requested that if any more
examples were obtained they should be sent to me in the fresh state.
Fortunately others were brought in a few days, when, from an examination
conducted whilst they were still fresh, I was able to make out several
details of structure which had hitherto escaped notice. Altogether I
secured seven specimens, three of them being in a mutilated condition.
In what way these mutilations (as shown by my dried specimens) occurred
I have not been able to make out, either by personal observation or by
questioning the bearers. Two of the parasites look as though portions
had been carefully excised near the centre. The new facts I have gleaned
were derived from the examination of two comparatively small specimens,
one of which, dried, has, by Prof. Rolleston’s desire, been deposited
in the anatomical department of the University Museum at Oxford. When
I took occasion to bring some of the new specimens under Mr Busk’s
attention, he at once recognised them as referable to the species he had
long ago discovered.
The earliest literary notice of _Distoma crassum_ appeared in Dr Budd’s
classical treatise ‘On Diseases of the Liver;’ and in it the author
correctly stated, from data supplied by Mr Busk, that these human flukes
were “much thicker and larger than those of the sheep,” being, it is
added, from “an inch and a half to near three inches in length.” The
longest of my recent specimens, however, scarcely exceeds two inches,
whilst the smallest and most perfect (the one at Oxford) measures less
than an inch from head to tail. The greatest width of my broadest
specimen is little more than half an inch, or 9/16″. None of the twelve
examples that I have examined approach the length of three inches; but
Mr Busk assured me that, judging from his recollection, some of his
specimens were even longer than that. I fear, nevertheless, that the
estimate given in my Synopsis is somewhat exaggerated; at all events it
is so for average specimens.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--The large human fluke (_Distoma crassum_) _a_,
Oral sucker; _b_, intestine; _c_, cæcal end of same; _d_, reproductive
papilla; _e_, uterine rosette (the folds of which are not branched);
_f_, one of the folds (in profile); _g_, vitellarium; _h_, hernial
protrusion (the result of an injury to the specimen); _i_, upper testis;
_j_, streaks or layers of seminal fluid which have escaped by rupture
and assumed a branched appearance; _k_, lower testis uninjured (but
slightly altered in outline from flattening); _l_, ventral sucker.
Magnified 2 diameters. Original.]
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