Colic in Solipeds from Verminous Embolism. 213 



dication of a special development which would have been accom- 

 plished ill such host. 



Willacli holds to a hermaphrodite stage passed in the intestine 

 of the soHped. He found in the bowel small worms apparently 

 related to the sclerostomata l)y the appearance of the head and the 

 caudal membrane, but not exceeding three to five lines in length. 

 Some were evidently females and contained not only eggs with soft 

 shells, but in one case embryos. Others had the caudal mem- 

 brane of the male, yet contained also a few eggs. There is no 

 vulva and the embryos escape by rupture of the oviducts. These 

 embrj'os he supposes are developed in the same host into the 

 familiar mature sclerostomata. 



Whatever may be said of those alleged modes, the first described 

 series of changes and migrations may be taken as the usual and 

 regular method of development. 



Pathogenesis. Lesions. These embrace j^erforations of the 

 mucosa, cysts, aneurisms, embolisms and congestions. 



Irritation of the mucosa. The adult worms, like so many 

 leeches are continually biting and sucking blood from the mucosa 

 and when present in large numbers, hundreds, thousands, or a 

 million create an aggregate of irritation which may determine 

 violent indigestions and congestions. 



Verminous Cysts. These are like a pin's head, a pea or 

 hazel nut, containing the asexual worm in a mass of purulent 

 debris, or if empty, presenting a small orifice where it made its 

 exit. 



Verminous Aneurisms. These are perhaps the most im- 

 portant lesions caused by the sclerostome as they are the stepping- 

 stone to the dangerous embolisms, and too often fatal colics and 

 congestions of the intestines. They are very common in some 

 localities, and rare in others following the distribution of the 

 sclerostomata. Bollinger found them in 90 to 94 per cent, of 

 adult horses, and Ellenberger in 84 out of 85 horses dissected. 

 They are found in all ages from six months up, and are nearly 

 always in the short, stubby trunk of the anterior mesenteric artery. 

 Often two or three exi.st in the same animal, the whole length of 

 the posterior aorta showing patches of disease, exudations, 

 neoplastic elevations alternating with depressions, and aneurisms 

 and thrombosis in its dilTerent branches. In 100 horses Bollinger 



