THE LIVER FLUKE-LIVER-ROT. 



DisroMA HEPATiCUM, Linn. 

 Plato XVI. 



The liver fluke disease, which causes so much loss in Great Brit- 

 ain and on the European continent, is comparatively unknown in this 

 country ; so rarely, indeed, is it discovered that most authorities on the 

 management and care of sheep seem never to have seen it. That it 

 has occurred in this country, and that it is present in certain portions 

 of it, is tolerably certain, for good observers have recorded it at various 

 times. 



Henry Stewart, in the Shepherd's Manual, 1882, page 223, says that 

 flukes were found in a flock of Southdowns at Babylon, Long Island, 

 and also in Cotswold, Leicester, and native sheep, presumably at the 

 same place. In the Tenth Census Reports of the United States, Yo\. Ill, 

 flukes are said to occur in Texas and California. In the latter 8tate 

 they have been seen by Prof. E. C Stearues, of the Smiihsonian Insti- 

 tution. 



The disease occurs so infrequently in this country that the writer lias 

 seen but two cases of it, and both of these were in cattle. For a de 

 scription of the malady we will therefore have to depend upon writers 

 in those countries where it occurs more frequently than it does here. 



Description. — Body flatteued, leaf-like, pale brown, irregular, tbo adult from 18 

 to SI""" long, from 4 to 13"™ wide, obloug, oval or lanceolate, larger and rounder iu 

 front, where it is abruptly contracted in sucb a way as to present a conical neck; 

 attenuate and obtuse behind. Skin bristling with numerous little points directed 

 backward. Oral sucker terminal, rounded. Ventral sucker large, projecting, with a 

 triangular opening situated .about 3™™ behind the first. Intestine with two rami- 

 fied branches visible through the skin and of a deep shade. Penis projecting in 

 front of the abdominal sucker, always recurved. Vulva very small, situated at the 

 side of the male orifice or a little behind. Eggs brown or greenish, ovoid; length 

 from 0.130 to 0.145'"™ ; width from 0.070 to 0.090"'"'. (Nenmann.) 



Occurrence. — This parasite has been found in the livers of sheep, 

 goats, cattle, camels, and certain wild ruminants. It has also been 

 found in the horse, ass, pig, elephant, rabbit, and man. It lives in the 

 biliary ducts of the liver, and, according to Kiichenmeister, feeds on 

 blood drawn from the mucous membranes of those passages. The par- 

 asite does not appear to be equally abundant at all times in Europe, 

 but seems to develop at various periods in sufficient numbers to cause 

 epizootics. A number of these outbreaks, compiled by Neumann, o. c, p. 



127 



