PLATYHELMINTHES 127 



APPENDIX TO THE INFUSORIA. 



In order to guard against renewed ERRORS it must be mentioned that 

 little objects moving by means of cilia have repeatedly been found in the 

 sputum or nasal mucus in diseases of the respiratory passages, and being 

 regarded as genuine parasites have been brought into connection with 

 these diseases. The very irregular and varied form of these bodies, their 

 rapid and peculiar disintegration, and the origin of the fluids in which 

 they are found, should have guarded from error. These little bodies are 

 nothing but loosened ciliated cells from the trachea, the bronchial tubes 

 or the nose, which move with the assistance of the cilia for some time, 

 though this does not prove their independent nature. To this category 

 belong Asthmatos ciliaris, Salsb., 1 Deichler's protozoa of whooping cough,- 

 as well as Kurloff's parasites of whooping cough. 3 



G. Lindner, of Cassel, has also become the victim of repeated errors and 

 mistakes in spite of all protests ; he never tires of hunting for certain 

 peritrichous infusoria (non-pedunculated vorticella), and seeks to bring 

 them into connection with the most various diseases of man and beast, 

 and he even tries to connect them with the sarcosporidia of pigs. It is 

 not necessary for the author of this book to go further into the relation of 

 these mistakes. 4 



B. PLATYHELMINTHES, or Flat worms. 



Bilaterally symmetrical worms, the form of which is blade or tape- 

 like, rarely cylindrical, and whose primary body cavity (segmentation 

 cavity) is mostly filled up by a mesenchymatous tissue (parenchyma). The 

 mouth is either situated at the anterior end of the body, or is shifted 

 more or less backwards onto the flat abdominal surface. The alimentary 

 canal consists of a short fore-gut, which is frequently provided with a 

 muscular pharynx, and of a simple forked or branched mid-gut ; there is neither 

 a hind-gut nor an anus ; in one group the Cestodes the alimentary canal has 

 entirely disappeared. 



The INTEGUMENT OF THE BODY consists either of a ciliated epithelium of only 

 one layer (Turbellaria), or of a cuticle and of glandular cells sunk into the 

 parenchyma, which is termed a subcuticular layer (Cestodes, Trematodes). 

 The musculo-dermal layer consists of annular, longitudinal, and even diagonal 

 fibres, whereas the parenchyma is traversed by dorso-ventral fibres. 



The central NERVOUS SYSTEM, which is embedded in the parenchyma 



1 Salisbury, J. H., " Infus. Catarrh and Asthma ; discovery of the Cause of one 

 form of Hay Fever, &c." (Ztschr. f. Parasitenkde. (Hallier), iv., [1873], 1875, p. 6); 

 Cutter, E., " Rhizop. a Cause of Disease" (Virginia Med. Monthly, v., 1878, p. 605, 

 and vi., 1879, p. 28); Leidy, J., " Asthm. ciliaris, is it a Parasite? " (Amer. Journ. 

 Med. Sc., 1879, Ixxvii., p. 85). 



2 Deichler, C., " Ueb. paras. Prot. im Keuchhustenauswurf " (Z. f. w. Z., 1885, xliii., 

 p. 144, and 1889, xlviii., p. 303). 



3 Kurloff, M., " Keuchhusten-Parasiten " (C. f. B., P. u. I. [i]. xix., 1896, p. 513). 



4 According to a written statement, Schaudinn has repeatedly found vorticella 

 with lively movements in freshly-evacuated faeces, but always only after water enemas. 



