318 PARASITES OF ANIMALS 



investigators I have dissected guinea pigs (Cavia apercea) with- 

 out finding any parasites ; but in Brazil a small species of 

 ascaris (A. uncinata) was found by Natterer in this animal and 

 also in the paca (Ccelogenys paca) The agoutis (Dasyprocta) 

 harbor Trichocephalus gracili*. 



The entozoa of the duplicidentate rodents (Leporida) acquire 

 importance from the fact of their abundance and from the 

 intimate relation which some of them bear to parasites infest- 

 ing the dog and other animals. Thus, the two commonest 

 kinds of fluke infesting cattle (Fasc. hepatica and Dist. lanceo- 

 latum) also attack hares and rabbits ; the former parasite often 

 producing the rot disease, which is almost as fatal to the rodents 

 as it is to the ruminants. Mutual infection occasionally results 

 from this circumstance by the distribution of germs. All 

 experiment-conducting helminthologists have reared Tania 

 serrata from the Cysticercus pisiformis ; nevertheless, several 

 English Manuals of Zoology persist in propagating the old 

 error of Von Siebold, who supposed he had reared this tape- 

 worm by the administration of Ccenuri. So far as I am aware, 

 no feeding experiments have been conducted with the Coenuri 

 of rabbits (C. cuniculi). These bladderworms infest the soft 

 parts of the body, often producing tumours having a very 

 unsightly appearance. For details I must refer to the papers 

 quoted below. The Norfolk warreners call the infested hosts 

 " bladdery rabbits/' Though apparently most abundant in the 

 eastern counties of England, these diseased rabbits are by no 

 means confined to that quarter. Through Mr Alston's help I 

 have received specimens of Goenurus cuniculi from Ayrshire, 

 Scotland. Probably this form of Coenurus occurs wherever 

 rabbits live. In Italy a case is recorded by Perroncito from 

 the abdominal cavity of a rabbit (coniglio). Every experi- 

 menter is more or less familiar with the cestode larvae (C. pisi- 

 formis) found wandering in the abdominal cavity. These were 

 regarded as flukes by Kuhn (Monostoma leporis). I need 

 hardly remark that the developmental and structural changes 

 undergone by these Cysticerci during their residence within 

 the rabbit have been exhaustively followed out and treated of 

 by Leuckart. Without dwelling on this subject, I must in 

 justice add that in this relation the special labors of Kiichen- 

 meister, Van Beneden, Haubner, Wagener, Roll, Eschricht, 

 and Moller played no inconspicuous part. My own efforts in 

 1857, and subsequently, were not unattended with success. It 



