June 23, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



975 



Dr. Stiles presented a second note on the find- 

 ings in feeal examination of 82 southern school 

 children aged six to twelve years. Infection with 

 hookworm was found in 5 per cent., with Ascaris 

 in 41 per cent., with Trichuris in 15 per cent, and 

 with Symenolepis nana in 6 per cent. 



Dr. Eansom presented a paper entitled ' ' A New 

 Cestode from an African Bustard ' ' in which was 

 described a new species and genus, belonging to 

 the family Davaineid^. The specimens on which 

 the description is based were collected by Mr. 

 Loring, of the Eoosevelt African Expedition, in 

 British East Africa, from the intestine of a 

 bustard, Neotis caffra. The worms are character- 

 ized particularly by the presence of ten to twelve 

 rows of very numerous hammer-shaped hooks on 

 the rostellum. Parauterine organs are present in 

 gravid segments. The complete paper will appear 

 in a forthcoming publication of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



Mr. Hall presented the following notes: 



The Coyote as a Host of Multiceps muUiceps. 

 ■ Curtice in 1890 first suggested that the adult 

 gid tapeworm might occur in the coyote. In 

 1910 Hall noted the likelihood of this being true 

 and pointed out that if it were true, then the most 

 essential step in the prophylaxis of gid was the 

 destruction of the heads of sheep dying of this 

 disease, since the other prophylactic measure 

 which is commonly advocated, the administration 

 of tapeworm medicines to dogs, is obviously in- 

 adequate if coyotes also carry the parasite. In 

 another article in the same year Hall noted that 

 we had absolutely no evidence as to whether the 

 coyote carried the adult worm, and that the only 

 known host is the dog. The data regarding the 

 blue fox and red fox as hosts of the gid tape- 

 worm are quite inadequate and these animals 

 must be considered doubtful hosts on the evidence 

 at hand. There is no record of any sort as re- 

 gards the wolves, martin or polecat, all of which 

 have been noted as possible hosts. 



To settle the question as to whether the coyote 

 carried the adult gid tapeworm, a matter of con- 

 siderable interest in that the coyote is the most 

 common of the wild carnivora which prey upon 

 western sheep, the experiment was tried of feed- 

 ing the larval Multiceps muUiceps, recovered by 

 operation from the brain of a giddy sheep, to two 

 coyotes. The sheep was operated on April 4, 

 1911, and the coenurus was fed to the coyotes 

 shortly after the operation, each animal receiving 

 about half of the cyst. One coyote was found 



dead the morning of April 10. Post-mortem ex- 

 amination showed death to be due to septicaemia. 

 The entire length of the small intestine showed 

 severe ecchymotic hemorrhage. Fifty-two heads 

 of M. multiceps were recovered from the intestinal 

 contents. A comparison of these worms after six 

 days' development with some recovered from a 

 dog after ten days ' development shows the worms 

 had established themselves and were developing 

 normally. They were still very small, of course, 

 but there is no reason to suppose that they would 

 not have developed to maturity if the coyote had 

 lived. 



The coyotes, Canis nehraoensis, according to Dr. 

 Bailey, of the Biological Survey, were obtained 

 in northern Montana in the area where gid is 

 enzootic and the coyote, therefore, must be con- 

 sidered, in view of the experimental findings, as 

 sharing with the dog the responsibility for carry- 

 ing the gid parasite and maintaining the gid 

 disease in that state. 



A Third Case of Multiceps serialis in the Squirrel. 

 In a list of occurrences claimed for the larval 

 Multiceps serialis, Hall in 1910 noted that Cob- 

 bold in 1864 had recorded M. serialis under 

 the name by which it is more commonly 

 known, Ccenurus serialis, from an American 

 squirrel in England, the host being specified 

 in a later article by Cobbold in 1879 as prob- 

 ably Sciurus vulpinus, and that Cagny in 1882 

 had recorded a second case from the squirrel, 

 Sciurus vulgaris, in France. Hall accepted these 

 records as probably correct. It was a fair as- 

 sumption that Cobbold 's ccenurus would be the 

 same species as that found in another rodent, the 

 rabbit, rather than the species found in the sheep. 

 He did not specify whether the American squirrel 

 was merely an American species or the animal in 

 question was actually from America. If it was 

 infected in America at that date, it would be 

 much more likely that the parasite was M. serialis 

 than M. multiceps, as the latter form is much the 

 more rare and limited in distribution now and 

 probably was even more so then. Kunsemiiller, 

 in an article in 1903, thinks this ccenurus of Cob- 

 bold 's was probably M. serialis. Cagny found 

 his coenurus in a squirrel which had been caught 

 young and kept three years. His specimen was 

 examined by Megnin and Railliet, both of whom 

 pronounced it Ccenurus serialis. 



In the article already noted. Hall stated that it 

 was to be expected that a parasite like M. serialis 



