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 was in the year 1865 that I discovered the mutton measle (_C. ovis_,
mihi); but I am not prepared to say that the parasite had never been
seen before, since it is alleged that a two-headed Cysticercus was
obtained by Fromage from the liver of a sheep (as cited by Davaine). Be
that as it may, my discovery was announced in a communication made at
the Birmingham meeting of the British Association in the autumn of 1865,
and subsequently at a meeting of the Pathological Society of London,
on the 3rd of April, 1866 (‘Path. Trans.,’ vol. xviii, p. 463). After
these dates further announcements and verifications appeared, amongst
which I can only refer to my remarks “On Beef, Pork, and Mutton, in
relation to Tapeworms,” forming an appendix to the first edition of my
work on Tapeworms, 1866; to the “Remarks on Cysticerci from Mutton,”
contained in the fourth chapter of the Supplement to my introductory
treatise on Entozoa, where a figure of the parasite is given, 1869,
p. 27; to Dr Maddox’s paper “On an Entozoon with Ova, found encysted
in the Muscles of a Sheep,” recorded in ‘Nature,’ May 15th, 1873, p.
59; to the ‘Monthly Microscopical Journal,’ June, 1873, p. 245; to my
further communications in the ‘Lond. Med. Record,’ Aug. 6th, 1873; to my
‘Manual,’ 1874, pp. 74 and 105, Ital. edit. ‘Nota Dell’ Autore,’ p. 133;
and especially to the article headed “The Mutton Tapeworm,” contained in
the 3rd edit. of my little volume on ‘Tapeworms,’ p. 12, et seq., 1875.
In regard to the measle itself, I spoke of it as smaller than the common
pork measle. The head is 1/30″ in breadth, and is armed with a double
crown of hooks, twenty-six in all, the larger hooks each measuring
1/160″ in length. The suckers are four in number, each having a breadth
of 1/100″. The neck and head are abundantly supplied with calcareous
corpuscles, being at the same time marked by transverse rugæ. The data
on which I founded my brief description of the scolex were chiefly based
on the examination of a specimen which had been procured by Prof. Heisch
from the interior of a mutton chop. Subsequently much fuller details
of the structure of the scolex were supplied by the illustrated memoir
of Dr Maddox (above quoted). This excellent microscopist, however,
announced the presence of immature ova within the Cysticerci themselves.
As the notion of the existence of eggs in larval cestodes was altogether
at variance with what we know of the phenomena of tapeworm life, I
suggested that the author might have mistaken the egg-shaped calcareous
corpuscles (which I found so abundant in my own specimens) for the ova.
In the interests of truth I felt bound to characterise certain of the
conclusions arrived at by Dr Maddox as simply incredible, but I regarded
his memoir as forming “an important contribution to our knowledge of
the structure of the mutton measle.” I had no idea that in pointing to
errors of interpretation I should offend the excellent author. However,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account