DE. T. S. COBBOLD ON THE PAEASITES OF ELEPHANTS. 2VS 



were brought from India by Dr. Hugh Cleghorn, who conveyed them to the late Dr. 

 Baird, who, again, honourably carried out the wishes of the donor by handing them 

 over to mvself. At the Norwich Meeting of the British Association in 1868 two of the 

 flukes were exhibited for the first time in this country ; and I then stated that they 

 " were identical with certain flukes long previously obtained from the duodenum and 

 liver-ducts of an Indian Elephant that died in America." I further stated that, although 

 the original ' find ' was carefully preserved in the Boston Museum, the worms had never 

 been properly described. In the summer of 1868 fifteen specimens of fluke, removed 

 from one or more Burmese Elephants, had been forwarded to Professor Huxley from 

 Rangoon, and the ' send ' was accompanied by a statement to the effect that the para- 

 sites were the cause of an extensive and fatal disease in Burmah. Through the kindness 

 of Professor Huxley, I was permitted to make use of his specimens for the purpose of 

 comparison ; and thus it became evident that his specimens and mine were of the same 

 species. I then published the original description already referred to ; and it was after- 

 wards repeated in the supplement to my elementary treatise on the Entozoa. The 

 second description of the worm was accompanied by an illustration, in which the general 

 plan of the mode of branching of the digestive canals was given on a reduced scale. 



In his well-known systematic work, C. M. Diesing at first recorded the American 

 ' find ' in his list of doubtful species ; but in his latest revision he formally recognized the 

 fluke as a good species. No description, however, was added. That revision was pub- 

 lished in 1858. Three years later, although I had not then seen any specimens, I 

 recorded Jackson's fluke as a Distoma, in the Synopsis of the Distomidte published in the 

 Linnean Society's Journal (1861). These references practically exhausted the literature 

 of the subject up to the year 1873, when I again had occasion to speak of these flukes. 

 (' Manual of the Parasites of our Domesticated Animals,' p. 13). Some of the specimens 

 received from Professor Uuxley were afterwards added to the entozoal series of prepara- 

 tions contained in the Uunterian Museum. 



I think it necessary to explain the reasons for altering Diesing and Jackson's nomen- 

 clature as applied to this species, and all the more so since some helminthologists persist 

 in ignoring the generic term originally employed by Linnams in connexion with the 

 common fluke of Bmminants. "Whilst (excluding the Amphistomes and their allies) I 

 recognize the genus Distoma of Betzius as applicable to all the two-suckered flukes that 

 possess a simple unbranched dichotomous gastric organ, I think it unfortunate that my 

 proposal to retain the Linnean generic title, Fasciola, for such true flukes as possess a 

 dendriform or branched gastric organ has not been fully accepted. This structural 

 peculiarity is eminently characteristic of a few forms of fluke, and gives us a well-marked 

 type. Besides the species under consideration, only two other flukes are known to possess 

 the dendriform gastric apparatus. We have not yet even encountered any transition 

 types (in this particular), although, on evolutionary principles, one must conclude that, 

 if not now existing, flukes with their digestive tubes much less branched must have 

 existed. The only three fluke parasites yet shown to possess this remarkable dendriform 

 system of gastric canals are the Elephants' fluke {Fasciola Jacksoni), the common fluke 

 of Ruminants (F. hepatica), and the fluke found by me in the Giraffe (F. gigantea). 



