250 DR. T. S. COBBOLD ON THE PARASITES OF ELEPHANTS. 



been preferable. This Ectozoon is no longer a rarity, specimens having been exhibited at 

 a recent meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society and elsewhere. 



I have nothing new to add respecting the mite of the Elephant. Its position is still 

 doubtful. By Eiirstenberg this Acarus was called Homojms elephantis, and by Gerlach 

 Symbiotes elephantis. According to Megnin, it is a nymphe adventive, or hypope, of a 

 variety of Tyroglyphus siro, which is very abundant in old forage. Now, if the views of 

 Megnin be correct, Homopus elephantis, considered as a good species, falls to the ground. 

 Not only so ; it cannot fairly be called a parasite proper to the Elephant, since its 

 occurrence on the only animal on which it had been found was purely accidental. The 

 original specimens which supplied the means of description were sent by Gurlt to 

 Fiirstenberg. They were found in immense numbers on the skin of an Elephant 

 recently packed with straw (empaille). It was referred by Fiirstenberg to the parasitic 

 Acaridse, but not to the true itch-mites, properly so called. As implied by his nomen- 

 clature, Gerlach had taken the latter view. After studying Megnin's criticism of the 

 whole Acarine question, one feels bound to acquiesce in his authority. On the question, 

 however, which he has recently raised respecting the dimorphism of the Cestodes, I 

 think M. Megnin's views are altogether at variance with any correct interpretation of 

 the facts known to result from experimental research. 



So far as I am aware, no other parasites of Elephants have been discovered; but 

 without doubt several more species will in time be brought under observation, especially 

 from amongst the Arthropoda. 



Practical Considerations. 



Although much has been written on the diseases of Elephants, little has been said of the injuries 

 produced by parasites. Having, by correspondence, supplied Colonel II. P. llawkes and other residents 

 in India with particulars respecting the various parasites transmitted for identification, these gentlemen 

 have, in their turn, furnished me with the practical results of their observation and inquiry. What 

 I have already published on this head has been either extended or confirmed by subsequent correspond- 

 ence ; but the most considerable additions to our knowledge have been made by the valuable communi- 

 cation of Mr. John H. Steel, in which full details of the Circus cpizooty are described. If properly looked 

 after, Elephants in captivity ought to suffer less from parasites than their companions in the wild state. 

 We have not, indeed, any reliable facts on which to form an opinion as to the extent to which wild 

 animals are thus victimized. That, like their captive congeners, wild Elephants perish from ' fluke-rot/ 

 there cannot, I think, be the slightest doubt ; for in the natural state they have the same or even 

 increased facilities for swallowing the parasitic larva;. Guided by the recent determination of Leuckart 

 respecting the intermediate or Molluscan bearer of the common fluke, there is every likelihood that the 

 mollusk harbouring the Cercarian larva of Fasciola Jacksoni is small, and possessed of amphibious habits. 

 Not impossibly more thau one species of mollusk is concerned in the intermediate office, although 

 I strongly suspect that in the case of Fasciola hepatica the representative Cercarian larv« limit their 

 temporary residence to the body of a single mollusk. If this be so, Limn<ea truncatula is the responsible 

 ' host/ and the source of sheep-rot. Be that as it may, we shall never settle this question in connexion 

 with the flukes of the Elephant unless our Indian zoologists take up the study of parasites in the same 

 earnest spirit in which so many of them have advanced other branches of natural history. 



Captain Williamson's ' Oriental Field Sports ' is one of the earliest works in which any thing is said 



