The parasites of man, and the diseases which proceed from them : a text-book for students and practitioners / by Rudolf Leuckart ; translated from the German, with the co-operation of the author, by William E. Hoyle.

Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The parasites of man, and the diseases which proceed from them : a text-book for students and practitioners / by Rudolf Leuckart ; translated from the German, with the co-operation of the author, by William E. Hoyle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    41/808 (page 9)
    COMMENSALISM. which van Beneden first applied the term commensalism Here we have creatures that live within the bodies of larger animals, like para- sites to which they are generally very similar m organization; never- theless they are not true parasites, inasmuch as they do not feed upon ^and tissues of their host, but share its food or live upon the refuse of its body. Although there are several instances of commen- salism among the lower aquatic animals, we do not find any m man and the domestic auimals, which form the subject of the present treatise, it being supposed, of course, that the conception of the term is uot extended to such parasites as live upon the internal excretory products, instead of the living tissues of their host. If it could be definitely proved that certain intestinal worms (such as Oxyuris curvula of the horse) really feed upon the undigested food of their host,1 this statement would need some limitation; but it would at the same time tend to show that commensalism is connected with true parasitism by numerous transitional stages, as we have already seen that the free and parasitic modes of existence are connected.