Volume 1

The science and practice of medicine / by William Aitken.

  • Aitken, William, 1825-1892.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The science and practice of medicine / by William Aitken. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    914/992 (page 874)
    SPECIAL PATHOLOGY—ROUND WORMS. B inch or so of the worm, the whole extent of the parent seems to be a uterus, a matrix, or a proliger- 0U8 capsule, carrying a countless offspring, to which no parturient female of any animal can be com- pared for productiveness; and from the fact that no inlet has ever been discovered to the genital organs, and from various other circumstances, Mr. Bastian has endeavoured to show that this innumerable pro- geny has been produced by a process of parthenogenesis similar to that with which we are so familiar in the Aphis. If a living worm recently ex- tracted be well lit up by an argand lamp, the hair-like filaments may be seen in motion with a good simple lens; and if a section be made across the parasite after it has been hardened in glue, the young may be demonstrated in situ (fig. 21). When the animal is mature, and presenting its head through the skin, it protrudes the extremity of the proligerous capsule through one of the small papillae or puncta, carrying forward a prolongation of something in the form of a loose corrugated sheath (fig. 20). It gradually assumes the form of a dilated vesicle tilled with limpid fluid—the contents of the proligerous capsule— containing flocculeut granular matter and young Guinea worms. Carter tells us that, if kept moist, the full-grown parent will live many hours ; and in this state the young will live till the * A.—Anterior extremity of worm, slit open and magnified, s^^o^A^ng, (a) Ujiper and lower cephalic painllas in profile; (h) Junction of CESO])hagus with intestine and constriction of peritoneal sheath; (c) Anterior termination of uterus, with short ovarian tube. B,—Posterior extremity of worm, slit open and magnified in same way, showing its hook-like termination; and, (a) Posterior termination of uterus with ovarian tube; (b) Termination of intestine (Bastian). t Anterior extremity. The ovisac {a) is protruded, dilated, and contains young; (h) A funnel-shaped sheath surrounding the protruding OA-isac (Gbeenhow). Pig. 19.^ Fig. 20.+