308 PARASITES OP ANIMALS 



locality (of the outbreak), Dr Romano could not at first pro- 

 cure any corpses for the post-mortem examination, for the 

 children had thrown them into the Tagliamento, which flows at 

 the foot of the fortress of Osoppo. It was only after the lapse 

 of some days that he was able to open one of the animals 

 which had just succumbed. The principal evils were remarked 

 in the stomach, the walls of which were retracted and 

 formed the seat of a catarrhal inflammation, from the products 

 of which a long, white, flat worm was removed with care for 

 examination. All the other organs were in good condition. 

 The examination of the helminth in the stomach, made with the 

 help of Dr Leoncini and Fachini, showed that the flat worm 

 (white, and with the body divided into rings, 12 centimetres 

 long, and 5 or 6 millimetres broad) had all the characters of 

 the taenias, and this was confirmed by a microscopic examina- 

 tion of the head. A few days later Dr Romano made an 

 autopsy of two other cats. In one of the corpses he noted the 

 alterations described above, and found a taenia smaller than tho 

 first ; in the other the same lesions without any helminth. 

 This negative circumstance very naturally disconcerted Dr 

 Romano, but several people of the place came to assure him 

 that they had seen their cats, during the course of the malady, 

 after violent and repeated efforts at vomiting, throw up a sort 

 of white cord, which they recognised as corresponding with the 

 taenia he showed them. Thus confirmed and reassured in his 

 diagnosis, Dr Romano sought to identify the species." In this 

 connection it is specially interesting to note that " during the 

 whole summer the inhabitants of Osoppo had been over-run by 

 bands of rats proceeding from the fortress. They were com- 

 bated by means of cats, and it was the best hunters among 

 the felines that succumbed. Here was, therefore, a striking 

 relation of cause and effect which could not be gainsayed." 

 Dr Romano communicated his observations to the National and 

 Royal Veterinary Society, but by an error in the report 

 the species appears to have been described as Tcenia tenuicollis 

 instead, of T. crassicollis. t In this connection I have only 

 further to add that the wild cat is infested by a tapeworm 

 scarcely an inch in length (Tania lineata). A species of 

 Bothriocephalus (B. decipiens) likewise infests the domestic cat, 

 in common with most of the wild felines, such as the tiger, 

 puma, ounce, and jaguar. Dr Bancroft brought me a specimen 

 from an Australian cat. The nematodes of the cats are very 



