Parasites of the Eye. 443 



MUSCLE FLUKE OF SWINE. AGAMODISTOMUM SUIS. 



Stiles and Hassall record the discovery by Charles Bullard, in- 

 spector at Buffalo of an immature agamous fluke in the muscles 

 of hogs slaughtered there. It is very small, elliptical, with cen- 

 tral cephalic and ventral suckers, enclosed in an ovoid cyst, 

 lodged between the muscular fibres after the manner of Rainey's 

 cysts (Sarcocystis Mie.scheri) and to be discovered only under a 

 low power of the microscope. No characters have been noted 

 sufficient to give it a definite place in the family, so that it is an 

 open question what host it attacks in its mature form, and whether 

 dangerous or not. It is probably identical with the form in Eu- 

 rope, described by Leunis and Leuckart as Agamodistoma Suis, 

 or, as suggested by Stiles and Hassall, it may possibly be a young 

 form of the lung fluke (^Paragonimus Westermannit) , the meta- 

 morphosis of which has not been worked out. 



It does not seem to be in any respect injurious to the pig har- 

 boring it, and it cannot harm the human being who consumes the 

 pork provided the latter is sufficiently cooked. If it could be 

 shown to be the Paragonimus Westermannii, there would arise 

 the question of the propagation of this new and dangerous para- 

 site on American soil, and the thorough cooking to sterilization 

 of every infested carcase, and of all others in the same herd, and 

 the abandoning for hogs of the infested area, would be appropri- 

 ate. The identity, however, of the two parasites is as yet a mere 

 hypothesis, and may be said to be rendered doubtful by the ab- 

 sence of the lung fluke from the same hogs and locality, and the 

 absence of the muscle distoma in the hogs that elsewhere harbored 

 the lung fluke. 



PARASITES OF THE EYE. 



Coccidia in ocular muscles : Ox, dog, cat. Muscce, tabanus, simulium, 

 and chrysops attack eye. Hypoderma under cornea. Lice on eyelids and 

 lashes. Sarcoptes, demodex, trombidium and ticks on eyelids. Leech on 

 conjunctiva. Cysticercus cellulosa in submucosa, in muscles or connective 

 tissue, in aqueous, choroid or retina. Echinococcus : Trichina in ocular 

 muscles. Filaria Oculi Equina : F. Papulosa. Distribution : India, 

 Ceylon, Burmah, Europe and America ; on low, damp soils, mostly in cool 

 season, but in more temperate zone at all seasons. Body thread like. 



