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contains dirty blackish colored bile and considerable quantities of fluke worms
and their eggs.
At a more advanced stage we generally find ascites, with isolated fluke
worms in the peritoneal cavity. The carcases are much emaciated, the fact
has entirely disappeared, the muscles are pale and flabby, the blood thin and
watery, and the connective tissue infiltrated with oedema.
Symptoms.—The symptoms of this disease have as a rule nothing charac-
teristic for sometime; at the start and for several weeks the animal, if anything,
appears to be putting on flesh and doing well. After a time, however, the hairs
appear dull and brittle, the skin becomes dry and sticky to the touch. Gastric
disturbances occur, the animal licks earth; the appetite is capricious, rumination
is irregular, and constipation alternates with diarrhoea. The animal gradually
but progressively falls away in condition, the skin becomes stuck to the bones
and oedematous swellings may appear on the dewlap and other parts of the
body, and ascites may also occur. In cattle the disease runs a long course
killing in from 3 to 12 months according to the natives. The people adopt
as far as possible the prophylactic measure of avoiding the pastures when possi-
ble. They tell me that about 8 ounces of "Tara Mira" given with the food
is a preventive. Salt or sulphate of iron given regularly when on the dangerous
pastures is a good preventive as it destroys the "cercaria "in the stomach.
Echinococcosis or Hydatid disease.
554. This disease is produced by the ingestion of the "Echinococcus polymor-
phic larva of the taenia echinococcus of the dog. It is exceedingly common
in the ox in this country where probably between 70 and 80 per cent. of the
cattle are attacked by it. It is less common in the sheep and goat, and much rarer
in the horse, although cases of it have been seen in this animal. It is not at
all uncommon in man who contracts it from the dog. Echinococci have been
found in almost all the organs of the body, they are by far most common,
however, in the liver, and lungs; they are also found in the spleen, kidneys, mus-
cular system, heart, oesophagus, reticulum, omentum, eye, brain, muscles and
bones.
Echinococcus is probably the most common infectious disease met with
in the ox in India. It is also very common in England and on the continent of
Europe according to Bollinger, it is the next common infectious disease in oxen
after tuberculosis and distomatosis. Schmidt estimates that it causes a
yearly loss of 200.000 francs in France. The distribution of the disease
corresponds to the distribution of the dog
The echinoccocci or hydatids are developed after the ingestion of the eggs
of the tape-worm with the food or drinking water. The vesicle may be seen
under the following forms when it is formed in the tissues:—
(1) Common fertile echinococcus consisting of a capsule filled with
watery fluid, and having a number of heads contained in the
proligerous cysts, this is the most frequent form.
(2) Compound echinoccoccus formed by a mother cyst containing
daughter cysts; secondary or even teritary cysts developed inside,
or outside of the mother cyst; this form is also relatively
frequent.
(3) Multilocular echinoccoccus, these appear like a mass of tubercules
which when cut into, show lacunar spaces. They are found in
the hepatic canals and sometimes acquire the hardness of stone
this form is very rare.
(4) Acephalocyst, which is but a headless vesicle and consequently
sterile; this form is quite common.
The embryos reach the liver throughout the portal canals or the portal
vein. Their development is slow, after five months the vesicle reaches the size
of a nut. The wall of the vesicle is of a gelatinous consistence and is composed
of a double membrane, an external cuticle which is very thick (the hydatic
membrane) and an internal relatively thin one (germinal membrane).