78 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 941 



prevalent among them, but malaria also pre- 

 vails. Three incipient cases of tuberculosis were 

 noted. Some other diseases are derived from their 

 neighbors. 



W. H. Babcock, 



Secretary 



THE HELMINTHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The twelfth regular meeting of the Helmintho- 

 logical Society of Washington was held at Mr. 

 Crawley's residence, November 21, 1912, Mr. 

 Crawley acting as host and chairman. 



The secretary presented a paper by Dr. B. H. 

 Eansom entitled "An Important Newly Eecog- 

 nized Parasitic Disease of Sheep. ' ' Less than a 

 year ago reports began to come in from inspectors 

 in packing establishments where federal meat in- 

 spection is maintained, that a considerable number 

 of sheep were found, on post-mortem inspection, 

 to be infested with tapeworm cysts. These were 

 located in the musculature, and as the infested 

 meat had to be condemned it was a matter of con- 

 siderable economic importance. German authori- 

 ties have referred an armed cysticercus in the 

 meat of sheep to Cysticercus cellulosw and it was 

 first thought that this was the case here. But the 

 fact that from one to four per cent, of the sheep 

 killed at some establishments were infested indi- 

 cates that this was not the case, as Cysticercus 

 celhilosw is very rare in its normal host, the hog, 

 in this country. Microscopic study showed that 

 the form found in sheep was similar to Cysticercus 

 cellulosce, but nevertheless distinct. It seemed 

 further unlikely that the adult tapeworm should 

 be a human tapeworm, as it ought to be reasonably 

 common and to have been recorded before this. 

 The logical host of the adult worm was held to be 

 the dog, and in this connection it may be noted 

 that French investigators of the cysticercus in the 

 meat of sheep have held it to be an aberrant 

 Cysticercus tenuicollis, the hooks of the two forms 

 being very similar. 



The matter was settled by feeding cystieerci from 

 the meat of sheep to five dogs, and Cysticercus 

 tenuicollis to two dogs. All of the dogs developed 

 tapeworms, but those of the five dogs were distinct 

 from those of the two fed Cysticercus tenuicollis. 

 Six sheep were then fed tapeworm eggs from the 

 tapeworms of the five dogs, and two were fed eggs 

 of the Tcenia hydatigena produced in the two dogs 

 from the feedings of Cysticercus tenuicollis. One 

 sheep was kept as a check. All sheep fed with 

 eggs from the tapeworms of the five dogs receiving 



muscle cysts developed cysts in the muscles, but no 

 Cysticercus tenuicollis; both sheep fed eggs of 

 Tcenia hydatigena developed Cysticercus tenuicollis, 

 but no cysts in the muscles. The check sheep and 

 other sheep of the same lot had no cystieerci of 

 any sort. 



The new cysticercus is a source of considerable 

 loss to the western sheep man and warrants care- 

 ful prophylactic measures, such as the destruction 

 of the carcasses of dead sheep and the employment 

 of vermifuge treatment for dogs. 



Mr. Foster presented a paper entitled ' ' Some 

 Atypical Forms of the Eggs of Ascaris lumbri- 

 coides. ' ' In examining feces or in dissecting 

 asearids, certain atypical shapes of ascarid eggs 

 are not uncommonly met with. Some of these eggs 

 are very much longer and narrower than the nor- 

 mal eggs, the length, up to 107 micra, being well 

 outside of the limits given in texts. Sometimes 

 nearly all the eggs in an ascarid will be of this 

 sort. Another atypical form has no trace of the 

 usual external mammilated albuminous covering, 

 although segmentation shows that fertilization has 

 occurred. The third form is the imfertilized egg, 

 the unsegmented central embryonic mass filling the 

 entire shell. A recognition of these forms is im- 

 portant in microscopic examination of feces. 



The secretary presented a paper by M. C. Hall 

 and J. T. Muir entitled "A Critical Study of a 

 Case of Myiasis due to Eristalis." A five-year-old 

 boy in Colorado Springs, Colo., during the summer 

 of 1912, showed a complex of nervous and di- 

 gestive disturbances, with emaciation due appar- 

 ently to excessive vomiting. The case was diag- 

 nosed as worm infestation. Immediately after 

 defecation following the administration of a 

 vermifuge, an active larva of Eristalis was found 

 in the slop jar. A critical examination of the 

 possibility of myiasis due to "rat-tailed larvae," 

 and of the circumstances in the case discussed, 

 more especially the prompt recovery of the patient, 

 leads the authors to the conclusion that this is 

 probably a genuine case of myiasis. The evidence 

 is more complete and detailed than in any other 

 published case dealing with myiasis due to these 

 larvEB, the other cases being given in detail in the 

 paper. Additional unpublished cases from the 

 U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry and the XT. S. 

 Bureau of Entomology were noted. There appear 

 to have been only seven published eases of myiasis 

 credited to ' ' rat-tailed larvee. ' ' 



Maurice C. Hall, 



Secretary 



