■WANDERING OF CYSTICEECUS AND PENTASTOMUM. 



137 



an Antilope hubalis which succumbed to Pentastomum denticulaium.''- 

 Still we have not yet observed any case of Pentastomum becoming 

 dangerous to man. This is probably due to the fact that as the usual 

 mode of transference is the smelling and licking of the hands by dogs, it 

 is imported singly or in very small numbers. Pentastomum constrictum 

 (Fig. 85 A), which infests man in the tropical regions of Africa, seems 

 on the other hand to have a much more intense influence on its host, for 



Fig. 84.— Lung of a rabbit infected 

 with Pentastomum. 



Fig. 85. — Pentastomumconstrictum; A, 

 twice natural size; B,\\\er (after Aitken); 

 C, in the lung. 



according to the information furnished by Aitken^ in regard to a few 

 cases of this kind, the exit of this parasite from the liver and lungs 

 frequently causes death. ^ It must, of course, be remembered that 

 while the length of P. denticulatum is hardly a centimetre that of P. 

 constrictum is nearly seven. 



We have hitherto considered only those wanderings which occur 

 constantly and regularly in certain parasites, and sooner or later in 

 their developmental life. The number of cases cited would have been 

 greater if we had not turned our attention exclusively to the higher 

 animals. Otherwise, we should have mentioned the almost always 

 fatal wanderings of the parasitic larvee of various insects and Filarice 

 {Gordius, Mermis).^ But without these, the account which has been 



^ Der zoologische Garten, p. 2, 1860. 



" On the occurrence of Pentastomum constrictum in the human body as a cause of pain- 

 ful disease and death : Aitken, " The Science and Practice of Medicine," 4th ed., 1866. 



' Wedl (Sitzungsb. d. k. Ahad. Wiss. Wien, Bd. xlviii., p. 408, 1863) mentions a 

 similar case of a lioness which contained a large-sized Pentastomum {P. moniliforme 1) in 

 its liver and spleen. 



* Of the other oases belonging to this class, I shall only cite an observation made by 

 Busch (" Beobachtungen uber Anatomie und Entwicklung wirbelloser Seethiere," p. 98, 

 Berlin, 1851) regarding a small asexual Nematode, which perforates the tissues of the 



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