TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISOENOES. 49 



food which are consumed raw. 

 Having thus entered the alimen- 

 tary canal, the minute embryos 

 bore themselves /with their six 

 booklets into the stomach walls 

 or intestinal canal, until they 

 gradually migrate further and 

 eventually enter the liver or other 

 organs. (The booklets in echino- 

 cocci of rabbit are very numerous 

 and the sucking cups also, 

 but generally six, while in 

 common taeniae there are 

 only four cups to be seen). Here 

 the small embryo swells up to a 

 large cyst and in this cyst a colony 

 of small unripe taenia or scolices 

 sprout up," etc. 



The main cause of the disease 

 in Iceland, according to Kuchen- 

 meister, is attributed to the many 

 dogs kept there ; these and the 

 warm drinking water being re- 

 sponsible for the enormous spread- 

 ing of the disease in man, as the 

 dogs devour the cystic deposits 

 which are carelessly thrown 

 about the yards, and the people 

 are reported to sleep with the dogs 

 in one and the same hut in many 

 instances. In (the case of our 

 jack rabbits, undoubtedly the 

 same process of propagation or 

 auto-infection takes place, and it 

 is a noticable fact that when our 

 prairies are covered with an abun- 

 dance of luxuriant green grass, 

 cystic diseased rabbits are rarely 

 met with; as soon though as a 

 prolonged droughty season pre- 

 vails, such as the present one, and 

 the rabbits are compelled to eat 

 nearly directly from the ground, 

 they also perhaps devour numbers 

 of the echinococcus eggs or taenia 

 embryos, and the prairie is thei 

 found to be covered with diseased 

 rabbits. The wolves, and perhaps 

 sheep also, undoubtedly . spread 

 the disease. The wolves kill and 

 eat the remnants of the diseased 

 or killed rabbits and deposir, the 

 ova or embryo in their manure. 



It is an accepted fact hf au- 

 thorities (Leuckart, Siobold, Vir- 



ehow, Kuchenmeister, and others,) 

 that the echinococcus is a sort of 

 cystic tapeworm and the embryo 

 state of the taenia echinococcus — 

 the same as the cysticercus cellu-, 

 losae is related to the taenia so- 

 lium. Experimental tests witli 

 echinicocci of man introduced 

 into animals have proven negative 

 so far, but, acording to Niemeyer's 

 pathology, it has been proven that 

 animals fed on echinococci of an- 

 other animal developed the taenia 

 echinococci in the intestines of 

 such animal experimented upon. 

 The immense proliferating proper- 

 ties, each vesicle containing, ac- 

 cording to Friedberger CPatho- 

 logy of the Domestic Animals) , as 

 many as thirty scolices, and in one 

 echinococcus alone as many as a 

 thousand ; its very minute size and 

 its vitality and tendency to mul- 

 tiply in the rabbit faster than the 

 same species of parasites in man, 

 readily explains the immense and 

 wide-spread infection in the rabbit 

 and canine species. Luckily 

 though, we Texans are not living 

 in Iceland, and our advanced civ- 

 ilized methods of preparing and 

 cooking food, our protected and 

 wholesome hydrant drinking wa- 

 ter,, and also the abondonment of 

 eating raw meat has cut a great 

 figure and added immensely in the 

 prophylaxis against all sort of par- 

 asite disease, and we owe it to our 

 good housewife and hotel cooks in 

 general that such narasite disease 

 as echinococcus in man is rather a 

 very rare occurance in Texas. 

 Among Texas cattle and sheep this 

 disease also is hardly known, as 

 far as I am informed, and the 

 question naturally arises: Is this 

 parasite in our rabbit of the same 

 , species as the one that produces 

 such havoc in some other coun- 

 tries? That, from its description 

 and histological appearance, this 

 embryo-coccus of the jack-rabbit 

 is near related to the echinococcus 

 of man, there hardly can be any 

 doubt. At any rate, though, it 



