PARASITES. 
271 
(3) Flukes — [a] Amphistomes. — These are frequently found in 
numbers in elephants, the better known variety being the Amphtstoma 
Hawkesii. These parasites are well known to mahouts. Colonel 
Hawkes in May 1875 sent some specimens to Dr. Cobbold, who, 
finding them new to science, named them after the donor. They 
are common, and are termed masuri or mussodee by the attendants. 
Owing to the large quantity of faeces passed at a time by elephants, 
and the small size of the parasites, attention is not attracted to 
them. Their abode is the large intestine, to the membrane of 
which they adhere by means of their suckers. They are of a delicate 
flesh pink colour. Steel gives their size as | — \ inch. Sometimes 
however we find specimens measuring y% — inch. They are not 
unlike barley-corns in appearance. 
They may on examination be readily recognized under a lens 
by the presence of a circular sucker placed at each extremity of 
their bodies. 
It is only when they are present in very large numbers that they 
set up much irritation of the bowel, causing severe and frequently 
most persistent diarrhoea, during which a truly marvellous number 
of the parasites may be expelled. It is a matter of common remark 
amongst mahouts that, when elephants are troubled with parasites, 
they resort to eating earth for the purpose of inducing purgation, in 
order to rid themselves of these unwelcome guests. The eating of 
earth may go on for a couple of days, the amount eaten being from 
2 to 4 pounds at a time, until free purgation is produced, after 
which no more earth is eaten. Steel, however, proved that this 
•eating of earth is not the whole and sole cause of purgation. In 
the case of the elephants owned by Sangar they were not supplied 
with earth, though they searched for it with their trunks yet they 
succumbed to diarrhoea. This habit of eating earth does not always 
denote the presence of parasites. It frequently points to the fact 
that an animal is not receiving salt, or if a ration of salt is allowed 
that it is insufficient. Wild animals such as deer, bison, sine and 
elephants make frequent and regular visits to licks and eat 
quantities of earth, and though in the jungles one frequently sees 
the droppings of wild animals, it is not often that one finds parasites. 
This parasitical diarrhoea often proves fatal, especially in young 
animals and in adults when in a low state of health. 
{b) Liver Fluke {Fasciola Jacksonii). — The term " fluke ^' 
has been applied owing to its flatness, being likened to the fish 
known as the fluke or flounder. It has a somewhat rounded outline 
and, when examined under a glass, it will be seen that the body is 
covered with minute spines. By a peculiar arrangement in the 
structure of the sucker, these creatures are enabled to adhere to the 
