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



Mahawat's name for the disease means ( fasting/ which expression " bears testimony to the generally 

 received notion of the necessity of withholding the rice when the animal is eating earth." 



In 1841 Mr. Gilchrist published his often quoted ' Practical Memoir on the History and Treatment 

 of the Diseases of Elephants ; ' and in this work, without any attempt at scientific definition, he alludes 

 to the parasites termed Mussoorie. He also speaks of the Nematodes as Shotee, and likewise of the bots 

 or, rather, the disorder they create, under the term f Lemgum.' The rendering of native names in 

 English varies amongst Hindustani scholars ; and thus Hawkcs spoke of the Amphistomcs and Nematodes 

 as Masuri and Soorti respectively. 



From the evidences I have collected it is clear that epizootics affecting Elephants are more or less 

 frequent in India and the East. The flukes received by Professor Huxley from Rangoon were obtained 

 from an animal which was only one out of many victims that perished from ' rot ' in 1867. A resident 

 in Burundi, under the signature of R. B., described this outbreak in a public journal. The Secunderabad 

 epidemic, of which I received full particulars from Commissary-General Colonel Ilawkes, was also para- 

 sitic, and, in my opinion, partly due to the presence of flukes and partly to the Amphistomcs. Speaking of 

 the post-mortem examination, where several kinds of parasites existed, Vet.-Surgeon \Y. S. .Adams says : — 

 " The large number of flukes in the liver and the intestinal parasites account in a great measure for 

 some of the symptoms shown; and these symptoms accord in many respects with those shown in 

 Elephants that died in Burmah during the epizootic in 1867." Mr. Adams adds that the liver-parasite 

 is the same as that which I had described as Fast-lulu Jacksoni; and in regard to the symptoms in the 

 Elephauts, he noticed especially the " refusal of food, standing with the mouth open, restlessness, and 

 puffiness about the head and shoulders." Speaking of another of the Secunderabad victims, the same 

 observer remarks : — " There were flukes in the liver, but in no great quantity; and the structure of the 

 liver was sound. Although not assisted by this case in attributing the mortality to parasitic origin, 

 I am strengthened in my opinion that the death of the previous Elephant was due to disease caused by 

 the presence of the fluke." Mr. Adams does not himself speak distinctly as to the presence or absence 

 of Amphistomcs in the Secunderabad outbreak ; but, as we have seen, Colonel Hawkes remarked both 

 upon their prevalence and the power of mischief that they had exerted in this epidemic. 



In various published papers I have shown that Amphistomcs frequently infest horses in India ; and 

 in one case (examined after death, and reported to me by Veterinary-Surgeon F. F. Collins) it was 

 calculated that about a thousand of these parasites were present. " Nearly the whole of them were 

 situated close to the crecum, and were loose in the gut." Mr. Collins sent me thirty-three of the 

 specimens. 



In the Secunderabad epizooty fourteen elephants perished. Writing to me in May 1875, Colonel 

 Hawkes said : — " Out of twenty-eight Elephants under my charge, no less than twelve have died within 

 the last sixteen months, whereas the average annual mortality has been hitherto only two per annum out 

 of thirty-eight on our establishment." My military informant, much to his credit, caused a post mortem 

 to be made in almost every instance ; and he supplied me with the results obtained and recorded by the 

 various veterinary surgeons. Two of these records (made by Mr. Adams) I have already quoted. Taking the 

 report as a whole, I am sceptical as to the accuracy of the deductions it embodies. It is clear that the 

 mortality was unusual, not to say unprecedented, and that therefore some special cause must have arisen 

 as a chief, if not as an exclusive, factor in its production. In my opinion, and even supposing the para- 

 sites were not the real cause of the mortality, the report is eminently unsatisfactory. Parasites or not, 

 here was a local and fatal epidemic ; and yet, as a result of the examination of thirteen carcasses, the 

 deaths are attributed to no less than eight different causes — inflammation of the intestines, inflammation 

 of the lungs and liver, splenic apoplexy, sunstroke, and so forth. Knowing, from long and special pro- 

 fessional experience, the scepticism which prevails in the medical world in respect of the injurious effects 

 of parasites, I cannot affect surprise at the conclusions formed by the veterinary surgeons in India. To 

 the mass of practitioners helmiuthological science and its practical issues remain a terra incognita. 



