Hmmatozoa of the Dog. 417 



long, with a thin, delicate tail, and a round mouth which ex- 

 pands, acting like a sucker when the worm fixes itself, by this to 

 the cover glass. In France they were found in 4 to 5 per cent, 

 of the dogs examined (Gruby), while in China, Calcutta and 

 Italy they were found in 33 per cent. (Manson, Lewis, Sonsino). 

 The numbers in a single host are varied but usually enormous, 

 from 3 to 15 in a single drop of blood, or from 1 1,000 to 1,000,000 

 in the patient (Gruby and Delafond, Rieck). They have been 

 supposed to pass from dam to foetus, but Gruby and Delafond 

 could not detect them in the blood until the puppy was 5 to 6 

 months old. When injected directly into the veins of .sound dogs 

 they disappeared in 8 to 40 days, in two cases, however, they 

 persisted for three years and then the adult worm was not found 

 at the necropsy. It may be questioned whether the dogs had not 

 taken in fresh worms in the course of this time. 



The mature form of this worm is unknown. Van Seibold looked 

 on the embryos as migrating nematodes and not necessarily all of 

 one species. Yet their form and habit of attaching themselves 

 by the mouth to a cover glass seems to closely differentiate them. 

 Embryo nematodes found in the digestive cavity of the dog flea, 

 the cat flea, the dog louse (haematopinus piliferus), and in a par- 

 ticular tick (rhipicephalus siculus) have been taken by different 

 observers for the hesmatozo'dn Lewisi ; but these did not corres- 

 pond either as regards the particular canine host, the locality 

 where they prevail, or the morphology of the embryo. Grass! 

 and Calandruccio supposed that they had found the mature worm 

 in a non-fecundated female, i inch in length, in the fatty tissue 

 around the kidney of a dog. There is, however, no real proof of 

 the identity. 



Symptoms. As a rule the presence of these embryos appears to 

 be harmless. Yet Gruby and Delafond have seen coincident epi- 

 leptic seizures. 



Treatment and Prevention may be tried along the same lines 

 advised for filaria immitis. 



Spiroptera Sanguinolenta. This worm is most commonly 

 found in cysts on the gullet of the dog, yet it has been not unfre- 

 quently found in similar tumors on the aorta. The anterior aorta 

 is their u,sual seat and the tumors vary in size from a .small shot to a 

 pea, hazelnut, or even a walnut. They existed in groups or simply 

 27 



