PARASITES OF THE SPLEEN.
Parasites are less common in the spleen than might be expected yet the encysted parasites of the liver and pancreas, are also to be found in the spleen. Thus echinococcus is found in the spleen of cattle, and headless hydatids in that of the horse; cysticercus tenuicollis in the spleen of sheep; cysticercus cellulosa in that of pigs; distomata, and pentastoma denticulata in the spleen of cattle; coccidia in the spleen of rabbits; and actinomyces in that of horses and cattle.
In addition to these the spleen is a general rendezvous for the different pathogenic organisms that can survive in the blood stream, such as the bacilli of tubercle, glanders, septicæmia, anthrax, black quarter, swine plague and hog cholera, and for the cocci of suppuration, strangles, contagious pneumonia, etc. (See Parasites and Contagious Diseases).