EUMINANTIA 



323 



Germany the epidemic disease is called egelseuche, and in a 

 more limited sense either die Fdule or die Leberkrankheit. 



2. The rot is especially prevalent during the spring .of the 

 year, at which time the fluke itself and innumerable multitudes 

 of the free eggs are constantly escaping from the alimentary 

 canal of the bearer. The 



germs are thus ordinarily 

 transferred to open pasture- 

 grounds along with the faeces 

 of the bearer. 



3. As it has been shown by 

 dissections that the liver of 

 a single sheep may harbor 

 several hundred flukes, and 

 as, also, a single adult fluke 

 is capable of throwing off 

 several thousand eggs, it is 

 certain that any rot-affected 

 flock is capable of distributing 

 millions of fluke germs. 



4. Such flukes as have 

 escaped the host per anum 

 do not exhibit active powers 

 of locomotion. Their slight 

 contractile movements, how- 

 ever, serve the purpose of 

 concealing them in the grass, 

 and probably aid in the 

 further expulsion of eggs, 

 which pass from the oviduct 

 in single file. 



5. After the death of the 

 escaped flukes the further 

 dispersion of the eggs is faci- 

 litated by the subsequent 

 decomposition of the parent 

 worm, and also by its dis- 

 integration, partly occasioned 



by the attacks of insects. It has been calculated that the 

 uterus of a full-grown fluke may contain upwards of forty 

 thousand eggs. 



6. By the agency of winds, rains, insects, the feet of cattle, 



FIG. 61.- Fasciola hepatica. Enlarged. After 

 Blanchard. 



