262 



DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



and the animals soon perish, in an exhausted condition and with 

 marasmus. 



3. In poultry, which carry at times a great number of species of 

 tsenia, helminthiasis is announced either by gastric troubles, and a 

 mucous or bloody diarrhea, or by a simple wasting away, the ap- 

 petite being preserved. The bird seems depressed ; the feathers 

 are dull, standing out, and are often alive with different kinds of 

 parasites. Periodical epileptiform attacks may be seen. The appe- 

 tite diminishes slowly, and later disappears entirely; the ^irds 

 become weak, emaciated, and die. The trouble sometimes take an 

 epiornithic^ character, as observed in the pheasant by Friedberger. 



The tsenias of other animals (horses, oxen, goats, and cats) very 

 rarely produce a so-called true morbid condition. Mégnin has 

 related two cases of peritonitis by perforation produced by the 

 Tœnia perfoliata. 



In the Black Forest, in 1874, we observed in the cat an epizootic 

 produced by the Tœnia crassicoUis, and at the same time the almost 

 complete disappearance of the field mouse has been noticed — it was 

 killed by the Cysticercus fasciolaris. The sick cats became emaci- 

 ated and died rapidly.^ 



As a probable cause of intestinal perforation in the cat, Perroncito 

 points out wounds of the mucous membrane, produced by the hooks 

 on the head of the Tœnia crassicoUis. In several cats which had 

 died from gastritis, Zschokke has found the Tœnia crassicoUis in 

 the stomach, while in the healthy cats he has always found it in 

 the small intestine, and mainly in the jejunum. He has looked 

 upon the presence of the parasite in the stomach as the cause of 

 death. 



Diagnosis. In our domestic animals the existence of taenia can 

 only be recognized by the expulsion of segments or by the autopsy 

 (frequently thus in the sheep). The parasites are ordinarily re- 

 jected with the excrements ; in the dog they are often seen on the 

 surface of the dung; sometimes they reach the margin of the anus, 

 progressing slowly through the hair of the region, and soon dry up 

 and form yellowish or whitish strings, more or less flattened. Ex- 

 pulsion by vomiting is more rare. The segments sometimes irritate 

 the rectal mucous membrane, and produce a pruritus which the 



\} I have used this word in preference to epizootic and epidemic, the words used in 

 the text. — w. l. z.] 



2 Lydtinj Mittheil. iiber das badische Véterinàrwesen, Carlsruhe, 1882. 



