96 



PRACTICAL PARASITOLOGY 



(fig. 29), is generally attached at the head end, but is easily released. 

 Careful measures are required to obtain the worm whole, as it breaks 

 easily at the thin anterior end. When these worms are present in 

 large numbers, the mucosa in the region of attachment may be scraped 

 away with a spatula and the whole complex of 

 worms, mucosa, and bowel-contents trans- 

 ferred to vessels containing normal saline. 

 After a short interval, the heads will become 

 detached from the mucosa of their own accord. 

 Single proglottides should also be carefully 

 sought. They resemble cucumber-seeds in 

 shape and are reddish in colour. They will be 





FIG. 28. Ascaris canis, L. (natural size). Small variety 

 from the cat. Left, male ; right, female. 



FIG. 29. Dipylidium 

 caninum, L. (natural size). 



found in the neighbourhood of the worm itself, or in the lower portions 

 of the small intestine. They may also be found in the large bowel ; 

 but, wherever they occur, they are always on their way to the 

 exterior. 



Of the larger tapeworms, T. crassicollis, a thick, heavy worm 

 closely related to the T. solium of man, is the one most frequently 

 encountered in the cat. In localities where Bothriocephalus occurs, 

 a slender variety of the human Dibothriocephalus latus is occasionally 

 met with, and, though more rarely, the small Bothriocephalus felis, 

 Crepl. 



Equally rare are the Trichocephales, which attach themselves by 

 means of their thin anterior end to the mucosa of the caecum, though 

 they may occur in the lower end of the small intestine. 



A sexually mature, very small roundworm, Ollulanus tricuspis, 

 inhabits the gastric mucosa. Part of its brood passes out with the 



