Parasites of the Kidneys and Vicinity. 453 



Description. Th.& female worm averages 37 mm. in length ; the 

 male 32 mm. The body is plump, the mouth terminal and by 

 reason of the papillae it has, when open, a hexagonal outline and 

 is funnel-shaped, and turned slightly ventrad. The median ven- 

 tral and dorsal papillae are more prominent than the others. The 

 mouth has also a circular fringe of 35 to 40 fine cilia. The anus 

 is terminal in the male, and it further serves as an opening for 

 the genital tract and the protrusion of the two spicula. The anus 

 in t\i& female is .64 mm. in front of the caudal extremity, and the 

 vulva, .99 mm. in front of the anu's. She has two small cuti- 

 cular bladder-like swellings in front of the tail. The digestive 

 canal is seen through the transparent skin as a dark convoluted 

 tube extending the whole length of the body and contrasting 

 strongly with the white cephalic glands and generative organs. 

 The ova are .1 mm. by .056 mm. and undergo segmentation in 

 the uterus. 



Development. The eggs, fresh from a newly killed pig, were 

 hatched out in water in Petri dishes, kept at a temperature of 74° 

 F. On the fourth day the free rhabditiform embryos had escaped. 

 In two days more these moulted and assumed the form of the 

 young worm. No intermediate host has been demonstrated for 

 the larvae, and in spite of the assumptions of such a host by dif- 

 ferent helminthologists, L. Taylor concludes from the habits of 

 allied species that probably no such host is required, but that the 

 young worm after moulting can be taken in and matured in the 



pig- 



Habitat. First found in 1834 by Natterer in cysts in the me- 

 sentery of Chinese hogs in Brazil. It has since been found 

 abundantly in North American and Australian swine. It most 

 commonly occupies cysts in the fat in the vicinity of the kidneys, 

 or even in the mesentery, but not unfrequently it invades differ- 

 ent solid organs of the abdomen as the substance or pelvis of the 

 kidney, the ureter, the liver and .spleen. Fletcher even claimed 

 to have found it in the lungs, but it has been supposed that he 

 mistook the Strongylus Paradoxus for the worm under review. 

 Dean claims to have found the ova in the urine which, together 

 with their presence in the liver, may explain the escape of the 

 eggs with both urine and faeces, and the hatching and moulting 

 of the young woim externally. 



