906 Animal Parasites in the Blood. 



The autopsy reveals, besides the already mentioned changes in the 

 blood vessels and in the blood, numerous mustard-seed sized, caseous 

 or calcareous nodules in the lungs and also in the liver, and in these 

 are found embryos of the filaria. (Lingard, Rev. gen., 1906, VIII, 

 179 [Ref.].) 



(b) Other Animal Parasites in the Blood. 



Bilharzia crassa, B. indica, B. Bomfordi (Schistosomum crassum 

 s. bovis, Sch. indicum, Sch. Bomfordi). These resemble the Schistoso- 

 mum japonieum of man, which according to Tsuchiya is not identical 

 with the Bilharzia haematobia (Distomum haematobium). The disease 

 caused by them (Bilharziosis), occurs frequently in Egypt, India, Japan, 

 Mozambique, Sudan, Abyssinia, Tunis, Cape Colony, Cochin-China, also 

 on the Island of Martinique, and affects cattle, sheep, horses and donkeys. 

 In Europe the disease was known until quite recently only in Italy in 

 cattle and sheep, but recently a case was observed by Marotel in a cow 

 in the vicinity of Lyons in Prance. Grassi & Rovelli in Sicily found 

 75% of the examined sheep, Bertolini 9% of the cattle of Sardinia, af- 

 fected with bilharziosis. The parasites were principally found in animals 

 between two and four years of age. 



Publications on bilharziosis were made by Sonsino (1876), Bomford & 

 Powell (1886), Grassi & Kovelli (1888), Eailliet (1889), Sanfelice & Loi (1899), 

 Montgomery (1906), Eaja & Peju (1907), Marotel (1908) and Bertolini (1908). 

 Montgomery, Marotel and Bertolini described the cause of the disease very 

 accurately. 



The infection probably results from drinking stagnant water, which 

 becomes infected with the eggs through intestinal excrements and 

 through the urine of animals. This mode of infection is indicated by 

 the fact that man, who, in infected localities drinks only filtered water, 

 usually does not become affected. 



The usual location of the bilharzia is the portal vein with its 

 branches, in the region of which they produce manifestations of stenosis ; 

 Montgomery found them also in the liver, whereas Bertolini never ob- 

 served them there. The worms are recognized, on placing the blood in 

 a flat dish, as thin, white bodies about i/4-l cm. long bent in a C-form. 

 Not infrequently they are found in copulation, when the females are held 

 by the males in groove-shaped depressions of their bodies. 



The spindle-shaped eggs which are supplied at one end with spur- 

 shaped extensions, circulate in the blood and produce inflammatory 

 changes or hemorrhages especially in the walls of the intestines, also in 

 the urinary bladder. In cattle changes exceptionally develop in the 

 intestines which may give rise to confusion with rinderpest. Small, 

 wart-like new-formations develop in the bladder, rarely in the rectum 

 of cattle. 



The anatomical changes show certain variations in the different 

 localities and in accordance with the number of parasites. Thus Ber- 

 tolini for instance found only hyperemia of the small intestines and 

 hemorrhages m the rectum, Xvhile the sections of the large intestines 

 as well as the bladder were free of such lesions. At the same time 

 nodules like sand-granules could be felt in the mucous membrane of 

 the small intestines, which contained female bilharzia and their eggs • in 



