NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
PARASITES.
271
(3) Flukes—(a) Amphistomes.—These
are frequently found in
numbers in elephants, the better known variety being the Amphistoma
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 ⅜—¼ inch. Sometimes
however we find specimens measuring 5/16 — 7/16 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 facksonii).—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
272
A TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS.
mucous membrane of the bile ducts with such tenacity as to resist
the contraction of the bile ducts to expel them with the bile into the
intestinal canal. The colour varies a great deal, depending to a
great extent on the amount of bile they contain ; if their digestive
system be full of bile, the colour is a dark brown or greenish black ;
if empty. a dark yellowish brown.
Cobbold gives the length, when unrolled, from ½ to ⅝ inch and
the breadth from ⅓ to ½ inch. The habitat of flukes is in the bile
ducts of the liver, which they invade from the opening through
which the bile flows into the gut, situated a short way from the
stomach, and it is to their presence that the disease known as rot
owes its existence. In Burma flukes may occasionally be met with
in mules and ponies, but more frequently in oxen, buffaloes and
elephants. Hawkes, a careful observer, who knew much about the
diseases of elephants, constantly found after death these parasites
in the bile ducts. This has frequently been my experience. While
he was stationed at Secunderabad a high mortality occurred amongst
the elephants under his charge. He attended the post-mortem
examinations, and flukes were found in greater or less numbers in
every case ; he also observed that other parasites were met with.
A long account of an outbreak of rot which occurred in 1867
amongst the Commissariat elephants stationed at Rangoon is given
in a letter to the " Rangoon Times," dated the 16th July 1867, and
signed " R. B." It appears that in the short space of fifteen days
seven elephants died, and it was noticed that the mortality com-
menced as the severity of the south-west monsoon increased. The
outbreak was such a remarkable one that I give some extracts from
the letter :—
" * * * The first sign I noticed of the disease was the
number of elephants which resorted to eating mud, the natural remedy
provided by the animal's own instinct for the expulsion of intestinal
worms. Perhaps the animal resorts to mud not only as a remedy
for worms, but also when any excess of irritation in the bowels or
stomach is felt ; however, be that as it may, in all the cases which
came under my notice, I am confident the cause of death was from
the presence of cystic and larval forms of the entozoa, which were
found in abundance in the liver, lungs, and intestines of the animal.
" In the lower bowels or alimentary canal the common worms
were found in great numbers, termed " chotee " or " mussodee "
in Dr. Gilchrist's Treatise (a species of ascarides ?), and it was not
until the liver and lungs had incisions made in them that the other
kind was discovered.
" The inside of the liver and cavities of the lungs were, I may
say without exaggeration, positively alive with this species of
PARASITES.
273
distoma, for I believe it to be such, at least as far as I am able
to judge in comparing its diagnosis with those mentioned in Davaine,
" Traite des entozoaines," of which at pages 49 and 322 a very
accurate description is given, with the exception of some slight
variations, which only determine this to be a different species.
" The form of the one (a specimen is herewith sent) now
spoken of is somewhat more round, which I think may be likened
in shape to the old-fashioned lady's reticule, and of about the size
of the nail of the forefinger. The body is compressed, soft, with two
distinct orifices—one marginal, forming as it were a small pointed
distension on its margin, the other between the middle and anterior
sixth of the body. Just above the ventral orifice there is a kind of
elongated appendage or sucker, in length about the same as the
body, but when pulled out by the forceps extends beyond the margin ;
it appears slightly elastic with the end distended. Under the
microscope the external covering or epidermis appears pitted and,
when subjected to the action of dilute nitric acid and mounted on
a slide in Canada balsam, the intestinal ducts are plainly visible
containing dark-coloured granules, being free near the orifices, but
thickly reticulated towards the margins with clavate terminations.
There are, as far as I could discover, no hooklets in mouths, as
stated to be in echinococcus or larva? of taeniae. From the absence
of these characteristics, I have been led to conclude it to be a
species of distoma.
" * * * Davaine mentions that animals such as the ox and
horse frequenting marshy, swampy places are subject to the distoma.
It is most probably the truth, but I think during very prolonged hot
weather, when the water is reduced to its lowest stagnant state and
mixed with the lower organisms of animal life, the elephant then
imbibes them with the water in their embryonic form. In this
opinion, I believe, I am in a great sense supported, for from inquiry I
find the virulent diseases which have attacked cattle in Burma have
been during a heavy monsoon, after a continued hot season.
"* * * The disease is not one which develops its symptoms
by different stages, but carries the elephant off in a few hours and
might, I am sure, be taken for apoplexy, or inflammation of lungs,
for the symptoms correspond in character with those described by
Dr. Gilchrist. The elephant exhibits difficulty in breathing ; it
keeps its mouth open, is restless in most cases, and refuses food ;
there is a puffiness about the head and shoulders.
" Besides the Commissariat Department, others have suffered
in the loss of elephants. The Forest Department lost their elephants
and reports have reached me that wild elephants have died.
This may be, for the wild elephants in a droughty season are
18
274
A
TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS.
necessarily subject to the same influences as the trained ones. I
would particularly mention that those elephants of this department
which were during the hot weather kept in the cattle lines, partially
in sheds and well cared for, have up to this time escaped.
" The sufferers have been those sent from the scarcity of forage
to the jungles to graze. * * * * "
With reference to this outbreak the symptoms appear to have
developed suddenly, and the disease to have run a very rapid
course. It is possible that the deaths were really due to some
specific disease. It will be observed that the elephants that were
kept in the lines escaped, while those only that were sent out to
graze contracted the malady. There is no doubt that flukes and
amphistomes were present in these cases.
The natural history of the Fasciola or Distoma hepaticum of
the sheep has been carefully worked out, and to those interested in
the life history of this parasite I would recommend a small book by
J. B. Simonds on " The Rot in Sheep." It will be sufficient to state
here that the progressive changes and transformation through which
this parasite passes from the egg to the mature fluke take place
outside the body of the creature they ultimately inhabit.
They
enter the body in their penultimate form and are parasitic only in
their mature state. They do not multiply in the body. It is a well
established fact that the fluke disease or rot is essentially a disease
of low-lying, inundated tracts, and wet seasons. There is little
doubt that some of the cases called thut by the Burmans and
zahirbad by the Indians are true rot.
As is the case in most ailments due to parasites, the early symp-
toms of rot are ill-defined, and may not even lead to a suspicion of
the cause.
In these diseases the symptoms depend on the number of para-
sites and inconvenience caused by their presence, and also to the
importance in the animal economy of the particular organ invaded.
A few flukes in the bile ducts may give rise to but slight irrita-
tion and impairment of function ; whereas, when they invade the
ducts in large numbers, the pressure and persistent irritation caused
may lead to such rapid and extensive structural alterations as to
speedily cause death. Under certain conditions the progress of
rot may be very rapid, such as in animals that are hard-worked, ill-fed
and exposed to all weathers ; also in cases where animals already
in a debilitated state are attacked. Young animals are sometimes
invaded by such large numbers of flukes that they impair the func-
tion of the liver to such an extent as to rapidly destroy life.
As a general rule the progress of rot is slow ; one constant
symptom is progressive wasting away, due to anaemia. This is not
[Facing page 274.
PLATE XII.
FASCIOLA JACKSONI.
Enlarged and natural size. Natural Colours.
PARASITES.
275
surprising when we know that an organ of such importance as the
liver is the seat of disease. The secretion of the liver, namely the
bile, has a most important office to perform. When the ducts are
crowded by these creatures, the pressure, irritation, etc., must lead
to impaired secretion and consequent alteration in the quality and
quantity of the bile. The gland gradually ceases to perform its
office in an efficient manner, thus the blood becomes affected and
impure in quality. The flukes as they become mature travel up
from the main channel into its numerous ramifications in the liver,
for the purpose of depositing their eggs. The result of this persis-
tent irritation is increased vascular action, which leads to the coats
of the ducts being considerably thickened and their calibre decreased.
Symptoms.—Dulness,
lassitude, frequent yawning", general
unthriftiness shown by a dry scurfy skin ; the appetite fastidious,
one day the patient eats well and on the following clay is "off
feed," possibly only eating earth ; thirst is frequent, the membranes
are pale or yellowish in colour, the mouth clammy ; there may be
puffiness about the head and shoulders ; frequent attacks of severe
and often persistent foetid and dark-coloured diarrhoea, which usually
contains specimens of the offending parasite ; this symptom is parti-
cularly pronounced in the case of amphistomes ; there is gradually
or rapidly progressing debility and loss of flesh ; later on dropsical
swellings, finally extreme exhaustion ending in death.
Treatment
Preventive.—Consists
in following out what has
already been laid down with regard to the management of the
elephant in health with especial reference to food, which should not be
procured from wet or marshy tracts (wet being essential to the
development of these parasites), good water, and an ample allowance
of salt. When flukes are discovered, the animals must be removed
to high ground.
If mahouts carefully inspect the dung daily as they should do,
parasites would often be discovered at an early stage before
the elephant becomes debilitated, and successful treatment and
early restoration to health would probably ensue. Inspection must
be close and careful, for these dangerous parasites are very small
and their presence very easily overlooked.
The dung of any animals found suffering from worms should be
collected and mixed with carbolic powder or chloride of lime or
destroyed by fire.
Diarrhoea need not be checked unless very severe or the animal
very weak. Stimulants, such as brandy, rum, etc., are at such a
time of service.
Curative.—See Vermifuges, Formulae 47 to 53, Tonics—39 to
46, also 85 and 86.
276
A TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS.
Tonics, especially arsenic, sulphate of iron, copper and nux
vomica, most useful during convalescence.
(4) Bladder worms (Hydatids).—This is a cystic or bladder-like
condition met with in various organs and tissues, but more usually
in the liver, and represents the immature stage of a tape-worm,
which in its mature condition inhabits the bowels of dogs, wolves
and jackals. Its cycle of existence is as follows.
To begin with the egg. This is passed in the faeces of one of
the above animals and may gain entrance to the alimentary canal of
an elephant by its feeding on pasturage, etc., contaminated by their
droppings. The egg having once gained entrance to the stomach
of the elephant, hatches and liberates an embryo, which displays a
desire to migrate, passing through the walls of the stomach, by the
aid of six hooklets with which it is provided, to some suitable spot,
most frequently the liver. Having found a suitable resting place
it casts these hooklets and becomes invested with a fibrous capsule
or wall. At this stage it is known as a hydatid cyst.
The hydatid cyst when fully developed consists of a wall with
fluid contents, and within it other smaller cysts or bladders are
developed, and within these again others may form to a third and
fourth generation. These so-called daughter and grand-daughter
cysts contain fluid and embryo tape-worms, which are called at
this stage " scolices." The scolices consist of a head identical
with the adult tape-worm, a constriction separating it from the body,
and a pedicle or foot which is attached at some stage to the wall
of the cyst, but which frequently gives way setting the " scolex "
free.
The scolex cannot develop further in the elephant. The hydatid
cyst thus affords a haven for the propagation of the species which
can only develop to the stage of "scolices." In doing this it
increases in size, often to an enormous degree. In order to complete
the cycle of the creature's existence the " scolices" must find
their way into the stomach of a dog or kindred animal, which they
usually do by this animal eating the organs or flesh of an animal
infested with hydatids, the sheep perhaps being the most frequent
source.
The scolex having reached the canine stomach becomes endowed
with renewed vitality and develops into a mature tape-worm.
The mature worm consists of a head furnished with four suckers;
two rows of hooklets and three body segments, the last of which is
provided with reproductory organs.
This worm is commonly seen voided with the excreta of dogs
and measures about ¾ inch in length. The adult worm produces
numerous eggs, which are also voided with the dog's excreta.
TYMPANITES.
277
It will be seen from the above that, if the ova of the tape-worm
gain access to the canine stomach, no tape-worm can result, since
it must of a necessity pass through the system of a sheep or kindred
animal and pass through the stage of hydatid cyst.
In the same way, should a scolex find its way into the stomach
of an elephant no hydatid cyst will result, since the scolex must of
necessity pass through the system of a canine animal before again
arriving at this stage.
Elephants therefore cannot directly communicate the parasite to
one another but only indirectly through the media of dogs, wolves,
and jackals.
The dangers of hydatid cyst are—
(a) It may increase and rupture.
(b) It may suppurate and become an abscess.
On the other hand it may rarely be absorbed and disappear.
Treatment : Preventive.—It follows from the above that mahouts
should not be allowed to keep dogs about elephant standings
and, should dogs' droppings about the standings be discovered, they
should be collected and burned.
When diseased liver and lungs are discovered after death they
should be treated likewise.
TYMPANITES.
Definition.—The
formation and accumulation of an abnormal
amount of gas in the stomach or bowels.
Causes.—It may simply be due to the fermentation of food as in
cases of simple indigestion. Occasional attacks may be met with
in animals whose digestion is much impaired and it occurs in flatu-
lent colic. It however is met with as a symptom in very grave
conditions, such as impaction, inflammation or twist of the bowels,
peritonitis, etc., and in such cases it is usually regarded as a very
unfavourable sign. Simple tympanites may be distinguished from
the graver diseases in which it may occur by the state of the pulse,
temperature, and injection of the membranes, also the fact that it
usually is seen later on in the course of these diseases.
Symptoms.—Evidence
of pain, which may be intermittent or
continuous and sometimes violent. Considerable distension of the
abdominal cavity causing a tense drum-like condition of its walls,
most noticeable in the flanks, often great distress in breathing. The
animal may stand very quiet, but in some cases may be semi-delirious.
Pain on pressure of the abdomen. Sometimes there is passage of
wind.
278
A TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS.
Treatment.—In
cases where the temperature and pulse are more
or less normal and the mucous membranes not injected, enemas
should be frequently administered and a dose of medicine given to
evacuate the bowels. Any of the following may also afford relief :—
No. 1.
Aniseed ... ... ... ...
Ginger ... ... ... ...
Rock salt ... ... ... ...
1 oz.
1
oz.
2
ozs.
To be repeated if necessary.
No. 2.
Omum ...
...
......
Ginger ...
.........
Assafœtida.......
Whisky or other stimulant......
1 oz.
1 oz.
½ oz.
8 ozs.
To be repeated if necessary.
No. 3.
Powdered green ginger......
Black pepper.........
Aniseed
............
Whisky or brandy.........
2 ozs.
½ oz.
1
oz.
8 ozs.
To be repeated in two hours if necessary.
If it can be given, four ounces of turpentine beaten up with eggs,
milk, a little bicarbonate of soda added and mixed with a pint of
castor or raw linseed oil may be of service.
In cases where fever is present no purgatives should be used,
enemas of hot or cold water only being administered.
TYMPANITES AND CHRONIC LYMPHATIC LEUKÆMIA.
The following is an extract from an article by Von Dr. H. Jacob-
Munchen which appeared in the " Berliner Tierärztliche Wochen-
schrift," No. 43, dated the 22nd October 1908 :—
" An elephant, one year old, after breaking loose, gorged
himself with hay, yellow carrots and freshly-baked black bread, was
taken ill.
" Symptoms.—The
trunk, the most moveable organ of an
elephant, hung motionless. On touching it there was an absence of
sensation. The mucous membranes of eyes, mouth, openings of trunk
appeared anaemic. In consequence of the rectum being protruded the
temperature registered was 35.5° C (95.9° F.). The beats of the
TYMPANITES.
279
heart could not be counted owing to the muscular spasms. Respi-
rations 36, laboured, the muscles of the chest being mainly employed
in the act. At times the animal groaned as if in pain. The abdo-
men was immensely distended and any pressure in that region caused
the animal to groan. The usual rumbling peristaltic motion of the
bowels was not heard. Examination per rectum showed that it
contained yellowish brown liquid faeces. Higher up the hand
encountered firm masses which appeared to be impacted.
" Treatment.—Enemas,
massage of abdominal wall. One litre
of Camomile tea, well sugared, and half a litre of brandy was admi-
nistered. This soon produced a beneficial effect. Convalescence
was protracted. Three weeks after first attack, he had a bad relapse.
The animal could not rise, his breathing was difficult (stertorous)
and the heart action weak. Jacob injected 30 c.c.m. (about 8
drachms) of spirits of camphor into the cardiac region of the mori-
bund animal and examined, under the microscope, blood taken from
the ear. He found a very large increase in the leucocytes (white
blood cells), 1 to 67 red corpuscles.
" The animal died the same day of dyspnoea (suffocation).
" Post-mortem
examination.—Chronic
lymphatic leukaemia,
oedema of the lungs and degeneration of the heart muscle. In the
stomach were several Gastrophilus Bots, and in the intestines a very
large number of amphistomes and nematodes.
The animal was also
suffering from Distomatosis (flukes). The illness of the animal is
interesting in that the owner of the elephant sold the animal as
sound shortly before the illness and was sued. Dr. Jacob as a
result of his examination gave it as his opinion that the elephant had
been suffering from lymphatic leukaemia which is sure to end fatally
That the parasitic invasion (Gastrophilus and Distomatosis) had
taken place before the purchase of the animal and that his capability
to undergo training was thus undermined.
" After the law case had run on for three years they called in
the Court of First Instance and the seller's claim was dismissed with
costs."