234 PARASITES OP MAN 



Erlangen, 1870, s. 20; and in ' Tageblatt der deutschen 

 Naturforscherversammlung zu Dresden/ 1868, s. 140 (also 

 quoted freely by Leuckart, Davaine, and Heller). 



Leptodera (Anguillula) stercoralis, Bavay. In the summer of 

 1876 Dr Normand, of the French Marine, discovered this little 

 entozoon in the faacal discharges of soldiers who had been sent 

 home invalided from Cochin-China. The patients in question 

 were the victims of the so-called Cochin-China diarrhoea or 

 dysentery. This disorder is endemic in character, and it had 

 hitherto been regarded as consequent upon a variety of causes 

 other than parasitic. Dr Normand's discovery, as such, there- 

 fore takes equal rank with the analogous revelations made by 

 Bilharz, Harley, Leuckart, Zenker, Weber, Lewis, and Bancroft, 

 in respect of the particular helminthiases in man with which 

 their names are severally associated (Bilharzia disease, Endemic 

 haematuria, Cestode tuberculosis, Olulaniasis, Inter-tropical 

 anaemia, Trichinosis, Lymphoid affections, Helminthoma, and so 

 forth), and also, if I may be permitted to say so, with my own 

 determinations in respect of a variety of endemics affecting 

 animals (cestode and nematode epizooty in the horse, the so- 

 called grouse-disease, the pigeon-endemic due to lumbricoids, 

 &c.). 



The Leptodera stercoralis is a minute, smooth-bodied, simple, 

 rhabditiform nematode, measuring when full grown ^" in 

 length, with an average breadth of ^ of an inch. The 

 embryos at the time of their extrusion measure only 535" in 

 length, but by the time at which a rudimentary vesicle repre- 

 senting the uterus begins to form, the females have already 

 attained a length of about ~j". The males and females are of 

 nearly equal size. The transition from the embryonal state to 

 the . higher larval conditions is accompanied by a change of 

 skin, after which the digestive and reproductive organs are 

 gradually but rapidly formed and completed. These changes 

 have been minutely traced and recorded by Professor Bavay, 

 who also compares the entozoon with the genera Rhabditis and 

 Leptodera, in either of which genera the worm might be placed. 

 I have accordingly adopted the nomenclature suggested by 

 Bavay. 



As happens in all the kindred helminthiases that are known 

 to be dependent upon the presence of small worms, large 

 numbers of Anguillules are necessary to produce injurious 

 effects upon the bearer. Thus, the evacuations of the Cochin- 



