Medical Officers of the Army of Nadia. 7
could not be the least doubt that the cause of illness was mainly the presence of
Sclerostomum tetracanthum, though, no doubt, its ravages were assisted by
other parasites, and especially by S. equinum. In addition to the parasites
already enumerated, the last case examined harboured, in the stomach, large
numbers of Spiroptera microstorna Rudolphi ; but a separate account of the other
cases would only involve useless repetition, and take up needless space. Before
quitting the clinical side of the subject I may remark that, from what I have seen,
I am inclined to think that the colicky pains described in Cobbold as symptomatic
of the presence of S. tetracanthum did not form by any means a prominent symp-
tom of the cases I have witnessed. In these, recurring feverish attacks, followed by
Profound anæmia, wasting and exhaustion, with, at the end, dropsical symptoms,
formed the most prominent features of the clinical picture. I am inclined to
think that, when colic occurs, it is due to the associated presence of S. equi-
num. It must be remembered that Cobbold's information on this point is second-
hand. The pressure, however, of my legitimate work prevented my being able
to bestow much time to the observation of still living animals, and also prevent-
ed my ascertaining, as I had intended to do, in how large a proportion of appa-
rently healthy animals fewer or more of the parasites might be harboured. I
have no doubt that a very large number of not only apparently, but of really,
healthy animals do harbour a certain number of the worms ; for, unlike S.
equinum, where a very few may indirectly cause sudden death, the severity of
a case must be directly proportional to the number present, and, up to a certain
limit of number, it is probable that no symptoms would result from their
presence.
Such, then, being the circumstances under which these parasites were met
with, I will now proceed to describe their free, or Rhabditis stage, as far as I have
been able to observe it. The term Rhabditis stage is used because it has come
into general use to denote the intermediate free stage of certain alternately para-
sitic nematodes. As a matter of fact, in this particular instance, the term is ra-
ther a misnomer, as the free S. tetracanthum I am about to describe, correspond
much better to Rudolphis genus Liorhynchus than to Dujardin's Rhabditis.
When my first equine patient was brought to me, but before its destruction
enabled me to identify the parasite, I started cultivations of the ova contained
in the dung, working on the same lines as those which experimentation with
Dochmius ova indicated as most likely to succeed. Several cultivations accord-
ingly were started with the diluted dung spread over sand ; others with the
dung simply placed in a covered crystalising glass ; and others with the dung
spread over patches of garden soil enclosed within four planks. In all of these
experiments the ova hatched out on the third day after deposition, the mean
temperature of the air being a little below 70°F., and development proceeded to
a certain extent in all ; but in no instance did it proceed to the adult Rhabditis
stage. Some condition, necessary to the welfare of the embryos, was clearly