CHAPTER XV. 
internal parasites : symptoms of the presence 
of parasites. 
Parasites in the Alimentary Canal. 
This is a subject of the greatest importance, and is deserving of 
the careful and earnest attention of all those persons who may be 
placed in charge of these valuable animals. Though Gilchrist, in 
his work on elephants published in 1841, and others since then have 
mentioned the subject, we owe the greater part of the knowledge 
we now possess to the late Dr. Cobbold the eminent Helminthologist, 
and Colonel Hawkes late of the Commissariat Department. 
It may be accepted as a fact that elephants in Burma are 
much troubled with parasites. It is exceptional after death not to 
find them in the intestines, or livers of tame and even wild 
elephants. Elephants in India seem also to be much troubled with 
them. Forsyth writes : " Elephants are very liable to intestinal 
worms. They generally cure themselves when they get very 
troublesome by swallowing from 10 to 20 pounds of earth. They 
always select a red-coloured earth for the purpose. In about twelve 
hours purging commences and the worms come away." 
Cobbold, writing on the important part played by internal para- 
sites in the production of endemics and epizooty, remarks : 
Depend upon it, many a death, hitherto reported as resulting from 
inflammation of the intestines, colic, splenic apoplexy, sunstroke, or 
to some other obscure cause, has been primarily due to entozoa, 
the presence of which may not even have been suspected during 
life." A parasite is a plant or animal which, living in or on another 
plant or animal, obtains its sustenance from its host to the detriment 
of the latter. In most of the larger mammals, however, there are 
generally to be found certain species of worm.s which, so far as is 
known, are not hurtful to their host. In the following lines an 
endeavour will be made to distinguish between those parasites 
harmful to the animal economy and those that are not. 
The internal parasites most frequently met with in the elephant 
are : — 
(1) Bots. 
(2) Round worms. 
(3) Flukes. 
(4) Bladder worms (rare). 
