DR. T. S. COBBOLD ON THE PARASITES OF ELEPHANTS. 253 



Colouel Hawkes himself was evidently perplexed by the record of results. He wrote, saying : — " In 

 every case at which I was present flukes were found in greater or less numbers in the gall-ducts of the 

 liver ; and the Amphistoma was also as constantly present in the intestines, the Soorti (Ascaris lon- 

 choptera), contrary to the general experience of the elephant-attendants, being less frequently met with, 

 though, from its colour and its shape, it is not so easily detected among the huge mass of fieces as the 

 larger Amphistoma." There must, of course, be some misapprehension here, unless the Strongyles are 

 included in the general term of Soorti ; for the particular nematode above mentioned was not present in 

 in any of the bottles of specimens which I received from Secunderabad. " In some cases flukes were in 

 large numbers, apparently collected in bunches in the gall-ducts ; but disease of the liver did not neces- 

 sarily appear to follow, nor, where disease was actually present, did it seem to bear a constant ratio to 

 the number of flukes in the gall-ducts." Colouel Hawkes subsequently remarked upon the impossibility 

 of concluding to what extent the flukes were responsible for the outbreak, and the difficulty of singling 

 out any symptom as characteristic of their presence. This does not surprise me, considering the number 

 and variety of parasites that were admitted to have been present, not alone in the liver, but also in the 

 intestines. In one instance there was the characteristic swelling beneath the jaw, similar to that found 

 in sheep in the advanced state of ' rot,' when the animals are said to be suffering from " bottle-jaw." 

 This "suggestive" feature, as Hawkes himself called it, seemed in his view somewhat neutralized by the 

 fact that in " only the one other case (in which the parotid glands were swollen) the liver was more healthy 

 and had fewer flukes than any in the whole series " of dead Elephants. 



In what has been called the English outbreak, affecting Sanger's performing Elephants, the injuries 

 appear to have been principally due the Amphistomes. In the animal examined by me, these Entozoa 

 were present in prodigious numbers. In all, five animals perished, one during the sea-voyage, and the 

 remaining four some time after their arrival. I feel assured that all the parasites found in these animals 

 were brought by their hosts from India. Mr. Steel records the symptoms separately observed in three 

 of the victims. The record is too long for quotation ; and, as one might expect, there is not much that 

 is distinctive about the symptoms. Speaking of the post mortem of a young female Elephant, Mr. Steel 

 states that the large intestine " was studded with very numerous, small, vesicular, blood-coloured para- 

 sites, about the size of grains of wheat. In addition, we found specimens of nematode worms inter- 

 mingled with the bowel-contents, some being found in the dilated portion of the bile-duct, where it 

 terminates at the duodenum. We found a few specimens of a thread-worm on the surface of an 

 incised part." By an anonymous writer in the ' Lancet ' it was stated at the time that this female 

 Elephant had suffered from " double plenritis ; " but, as Mr. Steel himself subsequently pointed 

 out, "the absence of a pleural sac has been proved to be a normal condition in this animal." It is 

 worthy of remark that in the case of the remaining patients the treatment adopted sufficed to expel some 

 of the parasites ; but from the first it seemed pretty clear that the animals were past all remedial help. 

 One of these young Elephants, a male, died suddenly. " In this case the parasites, both Amphistomata 

 and Ascarides, were much more numerous, the former existing almost in thousands." It was this 

 animal also which supplied the stomach-bots described in this memoir. 



Considering the heavy losses thus incurred, it was not surprising that the owner made the matter a 

 subject of litigation on the ground that there had been a breach of warranty. Without giving Mr. 

 Steel's views in full, I may state that he shared with me the opinion that these animals were infested 

 by parasites at the time of their landing in this country ; and further, he believed that if it could not 

 be shown that they were the sole cause of the epidemic, the parasites at least very materially contributed 

 to bring about the fatal issue. 



One passage in Mr. Steel's communication is perhaps a little too significant. He says : — " The 

 parasites in the bowels gave rise to irritation ; and the Amphistomes, like so many small leeches, were 

 withdrawing large quantities of blood from the animal ; the bowel-lesions were most marked where 

 these parasites were found." Mr. Steel seems inclined to set little store by the action of the Nematodes ; 



