abstracts: parasitology 39 



PARASITOLOGY. — The occurrence in the United States of certain 



nematodes of ruminants transmissible to man. B. H. Ransom. 



N. Orl. M. & S. J. 69: 294-298. October, 1916. 



Attention is called to the fact that three of the four species of the 



nematode genus TricJtostrongylus that have been recorded as parasites 



of man are of more or less common occurrence in ruminants in the 



United States, indicating the probability that they also occur in human 



beings in this country but have been overlooked. B. H. R. 



PARASITOLOGY. — The zoological position of the Sarcosporidia. 



Howard Crawley. Proc. Acad. Phila. 68: 379-388. August 



14, 1916. 



The Sarcosporidia are usually assigned to the Neosporidia, one of 



the two subclasses recognized as making up the class Sporozoa, but 



it is considered by the present writer that they belong in the other 



subclass, Telosporidia and should be placed in the order Coccidio- 



morpha, which accordingly would include three suborders — Coccidia, 



Haemosporidia, and Sarcosporidia. The probability is suggested in 



view of certain evidence given that the Sarcosporidia in their normal 



life cycle depend upon an alternation of hosts, at least one of which 



must be a carnivorous animal. B. H. Ransom. 



PARASITOLOGY. — Serum therapy for trichinosis. Benjamin 

 Schwartz. Journ. Amer. Med. Associat. 69: 884-886. Sep- 

 tember 15, 1917. 

 Serum from animals convalescent from trichinosis when injected 

 into other animals did not produce immunity to trichinosis in the 

 latter. Trichinous meat mixed with serum from animals during the 

 active or convalescent stage of the disease proved to be still capa- 

 ble of producing the disease. Animals once infected and harboring 

 trichinae in their muscles were not immune to further infection when 

 fed trichinous meat. Serum from a trichinous animal had no observ- 

 able ill effects on the larvae freed from their cysts by artificial diges- 

 tion. None of the results of the experiments appears to be in har- 

 mony with the assertions made by Salzer (1916, 1917) concerning the 

 value of serum from convalescent animals as a prophylactic or curative 

 agent in trichinosis. B. H. Ransom. 



