Parasites: A Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and Animals / Including Some Account of the Ectozoa

by T. Spencer Cobbold

The nematodes of solipeds are very numerous, and first in importance must be placed the palisade worm (Strongylus armatus). This worm was known to Ruysch (1721). The old naturalists recognised two varieties (major and minor). These we now know to be merely the final stages of growth of one and the same entozoon; and in both stages the worm inflicts severe injury upon the bearer, chiefly, however, whilst wandering through the tissues. The palisade worm has acquired notoriety principally on account of its causing verminous aneurism, nevertheless, this pathological change is not, in itself, the most disastrous evil produced by the worm. In the adult state the female reaches a length of two inches, whilst the male rarely exceeds an inch and a half. The posterior ray of the caudal membrane or hood of the male is three-cleft. In both sexes the head is armed with numerous, closely-set, upright denticles, presenting the appearance of the teeth of a circular saw or trephine. The eggs are elliptical and somewhat constricted at the centre, their contents forming embryos after expulsion from both parent-worm and host. The larvæ are rhabditiform, changing their skin, in moist earth, in about three weeks, at which time they part with their long tails. According to Leuckart, they pass into the body of an intermediate bearer before entering the stomach of the definitive or equine host. From the alimentary canal they pass to the blood-vessels, causing aneurism, and thence they seek to regain the intestinal canal, where they arrive at sexual maturity. It is during their migratory efforts that they give rise to dangerous symptoms in the bearer, not unfrequently causing the death of young animals, especially yearlings. In the adult state the worm is also dangerous to the bearer, as it produces severe wounds by anchoring to the mucous membrane of the gut.

The proofs we possess as to the frequency of abdominal, especially mesenteric, aneurism from this source are overwhelming. Prof. Brüchmüller estimated the percentage of aneurismal horses, six years old and upwards, at 91 per cent., and it is a matter of common observation in veterinary dissecting rooms that verminous aneurism is rarely or never absent in the ass. Professors Dick, Simonds, Pritchard, Williams, and many other English and Scotch veterinarians of eminence, have all borne testimony of this kind, and, for myself, I may say that one of the earliest pathological appearances with which I became familiar, some thirty years back, was that presented by mesenteric arterial disease of the ass. In relation to fatal colics in the horse the study of verminous aneurism is of the highest moment. On this subject Prof. Friedberger has published some valuable lectures, in which, amongst other points, he incidentally remarks upon the comparative freedom of military horses from aneurism as compared with ordinary laboring horses. This arises partly from the fact that the latter are not cared for to the same extent, dietetically and otherwise; and, moreover, cavalry horses are, as a rule, younger than ordinary working animals. Whilst Friedberger, in his suggestive brochure, does ample justice to the writings of his colleague, Dr Bollinger, it may be said, in like manner, that he does not fail to recognise his great indebtedness to the researches of Leuckart. So practically important, however, do I deem Bollinger’s summary of the whole subject in relation to the hippopathological aspects of parasitism, that I feel it desirable to record his conclusions at full length. No professional man having any pretensions to a knowledge of the veterinary art—or, for that matter, to parasitism in relation to sanitation—should remain uninformed on this subject. Dr Bollinger’s results are thus stated:

1. The worm aneurism of the visceral arteries of the horse, existing in 90 to 94 per cent. of adult horses, has a general correspondence with the aneurisma verum mixtum of man. It is, however, distinguishable from the same by its seat, cause, character of its walls, contents, and mode of termination. The worm-aneurism arises from a parasitism of the palisade worm (Strongylus armatus), owing to an inflammatory affection of the arterial walls which it causes, and which one may describe as a recurrent traumatic endo-arteritis. This holds good for all the visceral arteries, with the exception of the abdominal aorta, in which an aneurism may arise from local increase of pressure.

2. The formation and further development of the aneurism is also favored by the narrowing of the arterial calibre, which is caused by the inflammatory swelling of its walls, and also by the contemporaneous formation of a thrombus (clot), this latter still further supporting and exciting the inflammation of the inner coat.

3. Whilst the causes above mentioned (and of these more particularly the continued presence of the palisade worms and the plugging of the smaller arteries by thrombi) favor the growth of the worm-aneurism, the small size of the same, notwithstanding the years it has existed, is explained by the considerable hypertrophy of the muscular layer, by the tough fibrous capsule formed in many cases by the connective tissue of the mesentery, and by the adhesion of the intestines to the perpendicular and free-lying anterior mesenteric artery; in particular this last-named circumstance does not allow of any very considerable shortening of the mesenteric artery, which would necessarily be accompanied by considerable dilatation of the arterial tube.

4. The favorite seat of the worm-aneurism is the trunk of the anterior mesenteric artery, directly at its origin from the abdominal aorta. Most frequently that part of the arterial trunk is dilated from which the arteria ilea, cæcales, and colica inferior (arteria ileo-cæco-colica) arise, less frequently the arteria colica superior at its origin, and the arteries of the cæcum and colon in their course in the meso-cæcum and meso-colon. The verminous aneurism also occurs in the cœliac artery (Bauchschlagader), in the posterior mesenteric artery (Gekrös-arterie), in the renal artery, and in the abdominal aorta. A horse is not unfrequently afflicted with several aneurisms of this kind at one and the same time. Thus in one case (described by Bollinger) there were six of these aneurisms affecting the abdominal aorta and its branches in the same horse. The verminous aneurism may occur from the sixth month of life onwards, and with increasing age; the number of horses free from such aneurisms becomes continually smaller.

5. The size of the aneurism varies between that of a pea and that of a man’s head. The dilatation is, as a rule, equal on all sides, the form being usually thumb-shaped or bottle-shaped, passing into that of a cone or long oval figure. This general configuration is principally due to the free and moveable situation of the anterior mesenteric artery.

6. In contrast to aneurisms in man, the walls of the worm-aneurism of the horse are almost without exception indurated. In addition to the mesenteric connective tissue, all the arterial coats, and especially the tunica media, generally take part in this induration. The hypertrophy of the media, which stands unique in respect of what is known of arterial disease, forms a compensatory action of the arterial wall, analogous to the muscular hypertrophy of the heart in valvular disease. This change in the media points to the fact that in the development of aneurism in man the early disturbance of the nutritive process in the tunica media is not a less essential factor than the degeneration of the tunica intima.