# Midland Naturalist/Volume 01/Parasites of Man (5)

Parasites of Man.
By T. Spencer Cobbold, M.D., F.R.S.
[Continued from page 213.]
Considering the Importance of the new parasite (Flaria Bancrofti) it was thought advisable to devote more space than usual to the literature of the subject; consequently, the remaining species of filariform nematodes may be dismissed with comparative brevity. It happens, moreover, that much doubt hangs over the question of the genuineness of several of the forms that require to be noticed. The human strongholds, on the other hand, are all of them well defined species; and, as will be seen in the sequel, they play almost as important a role in the production of endemic disorders as do the Filaria themselves, In a general sense, the Guinea-worm may be spoken of as a Filaria, but, for reasons given in my introductory treatise and elsewhere, I prefer to consider this parasitic as the type of an osculant genus (Dracunculus,} The nematoids variously placed by helminthologists under the genera Selerostoma, Anchylostoma, Dochmius, and so forth, are all of them closely related to the Strongyli properly so called. As regards the question of nomenclature, I must leave it to Mr. Grove to say whether, in the genera above mentioned, it is permissible for us to retain the final component stoma unaltered. Many continental helminthologists no ​longer speak of the genera Distoma, Tristoma, Polystoma, Selerostoma, and so forth; but, following Diesing, they prefer to convert the final Greek component into a true Latin syllable. Thus we have Distomum, Polystomum, Sclerostomum, and the like. Long habit has so fully familiarised us with the old plan of retaining the Greek termination unaltered, that I confess to some reluctance in parting with the final component (stoma) although the form is not strictly classical. On the other hand, the introduction of new and more striking departures from the legitimate method of employing the binomial nomenclature is much to be deprecated. Such a barbarism as Hyperbodon butzkopf, for example—intolerable as it must sound to the scholar's ear—is, nevertheless, freely accepted by well-known Naturalists both at home and abroad. In helminthology there are probably fewer glaring errors of nomenclature than occur in other departments of Natural History science. Nevertheless, I think Mr. Grove's criticism in the matter of the family term Distomidæ perfectly just. Following the practice of the late Edward Forbes and others, I have frequently, and as I think fittingly, employed the names of savans for the purpose of forming new genera and species. Thus, by almost universal consent (on the Continent, at least) my genus Bilharzia has been adopted: its general acceptance being in part due, no doubt, to the fact that, as a generic term, it had priority over the various other titles severally proposed by Diesing, Weinland, and Moquin-Tandon.
Nematoda Continued.
28.—Filaria lentis, Diesing.
20.—Filaria labialis, Pane.
30—Fileria hominis oris, Leidy.
31.—Filaria trachealis, Bristowe.
32.—Filaria Loa, Guyot.
33.—Draecanculus medinensis, Cobbold.
To be continued.
* ↑ Communicated by Mr. Hughes to the Microscopical Section of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, October 15th, 1878, On Dr. Cobbold's behalf a microscopic slide was shown, containing numerous embryos of the Guinea worm, The young worms had been mounted some twenty-five years previously. They were originally taken from adult Dracunculusin the possession of the late Sir George Bullingall, of Edinburgh. Altogether the specimens had been preserved for upwards of of a century.
* ↑ See the "Midland Naturalist" for May, p. 123.
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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