REPORT ON DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
233 
expected to have devoured. Under such a system not only may we 
hope for a material decrease of trichinous hams and bacon, but 
for valuable discoveries of hitherto unsuspected and dangerous 
hosts of parasites, so that the work of extermination would con¬ 
tinually become more easy and effectual. 
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ECHINOCOCCUS. 
In all countries where it abounds (Iceland) this is one of the 
most destructive of the parasites of man. In the United States 
it is by no means so common as to give rise to much appreherision, 
and yet an examination of the internal organs of animals slaugh¬ 
tered, and a consultation of medical records, show that it is far 
from uncommon. As the parasite is derived from the dog, and 
as its tsenia form in the bowels of that animal is so small as to 
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be rarely recognized, it is likely to cause great damage before its 
presence is suspected in a locality. This is but one of a myriad 
of heavy charges that must be brought against the crowds of 
useless curs that everywhere abound, and more or less directly 
impair the health and prosperity of the people. With man alone 
the dog reciprocates in sustaining no less than seven dangerous 
animal parasites, in addition to the vegetable ones, producing the 
different forms of ringworm ; with cattle and sheep he joins in 
maintaining three that devastate our herds and flocks. His ubiq¬ 
uity is a continual threat of canine madness to all living things. 
He has remanded to nature, or to less productive culture, large 
tracts that are admirably adapted to the raising of sheep, but 
where the losses from the devouring jaws of the dog have ren¬ 
dered sheep farming unprofitable. Sanitary considerations, alike 
affecting man and beast, therefore demand a rigid control of dogs 
and the imposition of a tax that shall be to a large extent pro¬ 
hibitory of tiieir maintenance. Further, whenever echinococcus, 
cysticercus tennicollis, Bothriocephalus latus, B. cordatus, Stron- 
gylus gigas, Pentastoina tmnioides, or JDemodex folliculorum 
occur in man, attention should be given to the condition of the 
dogs in the locality, and measures taken to prevent the propagation 
of these parasites through their systems. 
