Fig. 252a.
The development in cattle often remains stationary at the bladder stage, and they are then called “acephalocysts,” or Echinococcus cysticus sterilis. According to Lichtenheld, sterile cysts occur in 80 per cent. of cases in cattle, in 20 per cent. in pigs, and in 7·5 per cent. in sheep. In other cases large numbers of small, hollow BROOD CAPSULES are formed in the germ layer, but are not arranged in any particular order. The order of the layers is just the reverse in them to what it is in the parent cyst, that is to say, they have inside a thin non-laminated cuticle and the parenchymatous layer on their external surface. These, theoretically at least, may be regarded as invaginations of the bladder wall giving rise to a cavity with the cuticle internal and the parenchymatous layer external. If we suppose the orifice to close, we should then get an isolated cavity with cuticle internal and parenchymatous layer external, as in the brood capsule (fig. 252). If we next suppose an evagination of the wall of the brood capsule to occur at one point we should get a hollow process lined with cuticle; at the bottom of this we get the scolex and hooklets formed, and a little higher up the tube the suckers (fig. 252, 4). If this hollow scolex is now pictured as being invaginated we get a hollow scolex covered with cuticle and lined by a parenchymatous layer projecting into the cavity of the brood capsule. The two sides of this hollow scolex now fuse and we get a solid scolex projecting into the cavity. Finally, if we imagine once more the rostellum and suckers invaginated into the posterior part of the scolex we get the condition as frequently found in the brood capsules, i.e., a scolex covered with cuticle projecting into the cavity, with the rostellum and suckers invaginated into the posterior portion of the scolex (fig. 252A, 7).
Fig. 253.—Section through an invaginated echinococcus scolex. Cf. fig. 252A, 7. × 300. (After Dévé.)
A large hydatid may contain many thousands of brood capsules. Each brood capsule is about as big as a pin’s head, and may contain ten to thirty or more scolices. The delicate wall of the brood capsules may rupture, so that the scolices are now free in the mother cyst. These free scolices and also free brood capsules constitute what is known as “hydatid sand,” which settles at the bottom of a glass when hydatid fluid is poured into it. This form occurs chiefly in domesticated animals and is termed E. veterinorum, Rud., or E. cysticus fertilis.
In man, and only rarely in cattle, the mother cyst first forms “daughter cysts” (E. hominis, Rud. [fig. 255]), which, though smaller than the “mother cyst,” resemble it in the structure of their walls; thus they are covered externally by a laminated cuticle and internally by the parenchymatous layer. They originate: