Colic in Solipeds from Verminous Embolism. 217 



dication of a special development which would have been accom- 

 plished in such host. 



Willach holds to a hermaphrodite stage passed in the intestine 

 of the soliped. He found in the bowel small worms apparently 

 related to the sclerostomata by the appearance of the head and 

 the caudal membrane, but not exceeding three to five lines in 

 length. Some were evidently females and contained not only 

 eggs with soft shells, but in one case embryos. Others had the 

 caudal membrane of the male, yet contained also a few eggs. 

 There is no vulva and the embryos escape by rupture of the ovi- 

 ducts. These embryos he supposes are developed in the same 

 host into the familiar mature sclerostomata. 



Whatever may be said of those alleged modes, the first 

 described series of changes and migrations may be taken as the 

 usual and regular method of development. 



Pathogenesis. Lesions. These embrace perforations of the 

 mucosa, cysts, aneurisms, embolisms and congestions. 



Irritation of the mucosa. The adult worms, like so many 

 leeches are continually biting and sucking blood from the mucosa 

 and when present in large numbers, hundreds, thousands, or a 

 million create an aggregate of irritation which may determine 

 violent indigestions and congestions. 



Verminous Cysts. These are like a pin's head, a pea or 

 hazel nut, containing the asexual worm in a mass of purulent 

 debris, or if empty, presenting a small orifice where it made its 



exit. 



Verminous Aneurisms. These are perhaps the most im- 

 portant lesions caused by the sclerostome as they are the stepping- 

 stone to the dangerous embolisms, and too often fatal colics and 

 congestions of the intestines. They are very common in some 

 localities, and rare in others following the distribution of the 

 sclerostomata. Bollinger found them in 90 to 94 per cent, of 

 adult horses, and Ellenberger in 84 out of 85 horses dissected. 

 They are found in all ages from six months up, and are nearly 

 always, in the short, stubby trunk of the anterior mesenteric 

 artery. Often two or three exist in the same animal, the whole 

 length of the posterior aorta showing patches of disease, exuda- 

 tions, neoplastic elevations alternating with depressions, and 

 aneurisms and thrombosis in its different branches. In 100 



