4i8 



THE ANIMALS AND MAN 



mals, which have a piercing beak and suck blood) (fig. 211). 

 Specimens of these parasites should be obtained and ex- 

 amined under a microscope to note the absence of wings 

 and compound eyes, and the peculiarly shaped body well 

 fitted for swift running among the feathers. Note bits 

 of feathers in the stomach showing through the body-wall. 

 Parasites of the human body. — Our 

 own body is infested, or may be, by many 

 different parasites. More than fifty species 

 of worms have been recorded as human 

 parasites. The tapeworms and trichinae, 

 already referred to, may enter our body 

 when we eat under-cooked meat, especi- 

 ally pork, which has not been properly 

 inspected. Flukeworms of various species 

 may live in the liver, lungs, intestine and 

 even. in the brain. A small round worm 

 of the genus Uncinaria, called hookworm, 

 which seriously affects the blood-, has been 

 found to be a very common parasi.te, being 

 Fig. 211. A biting especially abundant in the South. Various 

 bird louse, Nir- FilarisE or blood worms cause frightful 



mus 

 from 

 Sterna 



(About 1-12 of arm may become so enlarged as to weigh 



an inch lon^; ^^g much as all the rest of his body, is one 



by Geo. E. Mitch- ^^ these filaria-caused diseases from which 



ell.) a third of all the Samoans suffer. 



Even more serious in their results than the diseases and 



troubles caused us by parasitic worms are those produced 



by Protozoan parasites. Associated with these diseases 



caused by animal parasites are those caused by the parasitic 



growth in our bodies of bacteria and bacilli, which are one- 



cellpd plants. 



There are many other examples of parasitic life to be 



praesians, diseases among the natives of tropic lands. 



the tern, „, , ... , . , , . , i 



Elephantiasis, in which the patient s leg or 



