The Animal Parasites of ManFantham, Harold Benjamin
Science
The Animal Parasites of Man
Fantham, Harold Benjamin
Medical parasitology
_Class III._--*Cestoda* (Tapeworms). Endoparasitic flat worms without
an alimentary canal. The larval stages are rarely ciliated, but are
usually provided with six spines; the adult worm is covered with a
cuticle, the matrix cells of which are embedded in the parenchyma. The
body consists of a single segment (Cestodaria) or a chain of segments,
in which case it consists of the scolex and the segments containing
the sexual organs (proglottides) (Cestodes s. str.). The scolex is
provided with various adhesive and fixation organs, and there are
calcareous corpuscles in the parenchyma. Excretory organs symmetrical,
opening at the posterior end. These worms are always hermaphroditic,
and then possess one or two female and one male sexual orifice. During
development a larval intermediate stage (“measle”) occurs and almost
always in a different host to that in which the adult sexual worm
lives. The adult stage is parasitic in vertebrate animals; but the
larval stage may occur in invertebrates.
Class II. *TREMATODA*, Rud.
These worms are usually leaf- or tongue-shaped, but also barrel-shaped
or conical; they vary from 0·1 mm. to almost 1 m.[256] in length; most
of them, however, are small (5 mm. to 15 mm.). The surface on which
the orifice of the uterus and the male sexual opening are situated is
termed the ventral surface; the oral aperture, which also acts as anus,
is always at the anterior end in the sub-order _Prostomata_ (p. 230),
but in the sub-order _Gasterostomata_ it is ventral.
[256] _Nematobothrium filarina_, van Bened., on the branchial chamber
of the Tunny.
Suckers are always present and occur in varying numbers and positions
at the anterior extremities as well as on the ventral surface, and
occasionally on the lateral margin and on the dorsum; the beginning
of the intestine (mouth) is always surrounded by a sucker in the
_Prostomata_.
In or near the suckers there may be chitinous hooks, claws or claspers,
or the surface of the body is more or less covered with spines, scales
or prickles; in one genus (_Rhopalias_) there are projectile tentacles
beset with spines on the sides of the anterior part of the body.
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