Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses Page: 49
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TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 49
food which are consumed raw.
Having thus entered the alimen-
tary canal, the minute embryos
bore themselves ':with their six
hooklets into the stomach walls
or intestinal canal, until they
gradually migrate further and
eventually enter the liver or other
organs. (The hooklets in echino-
cocci of rabbit are very numerous
and the sucking cups also,
but generally six, while in
common taeniae there are
only four cups to be seen). Here
the small embryo swells up to a
large cyst and in this cyst a colony
of small unripe taenia or scolices
sprout up," etc.
The main cause of the disease
in Iceland, according to Kuchen-
meister, is attributed to the many
dogs kept there; these and the
warm drinking water being re-
sponsible for the enormous spread-
ing of the disease in man, as the
dogs devour the cystic deposits
which are carelessly thrown
about the yards, and the people
are reported to sleep with the dogs
in one and the same hut in many
instances. In lthe case o1f our
jack rabbits, undoubtedly the
same process of propagation or
auto-infection takes place, and it
is a noticable fact that when our
prairies are covered with an abun-
dance of luxuriant green grass,
cystic diseased rabbits are rarely
met with; as soon though as a
prolonged droughty season pre-
vails, such as the present one, and
the rabbits are compelled to eat
nearly directly from the ground,
they also perhaps devour numbers
of the echinococcus eggs or taenia
embryos, and the prairie is then
found to be covered with diseased
rabbits. The wolves, and perhaps
sheep also, undoubtedly spread
the disease. The wolves kill and
eat the remnants of the diseased
or killed rabbits and deposit the
ova or embryo in their manure.
It is an accepted fact by au-
thorities (Leuckart, Sicbold, Vir-chow, Kuchenmeister, and others,)
that the echinococcus is a sort of
cystic tapeworm and the embryo
state of the taenia echinococcus-
the same as the cysticercus celln-
losae is related to the taenia so-
lium. Experimental tests with
echinicocci of man introduced
into animals have proven negative
so far, but, acording to Niemeyer's
pathology, it has been proven that
animals fed on echinococci of an-
other animal developed the taenia
echinococci in the intestines of
such animal experimented upon.
The immense proliferating proper-
ties, each vesicle containing, ac-
cording to Friedberger (Patho-
logy of the Domestic Animals), as
many as thirty scolices, and in one
echinococcus alone as many as a
thousand; its very minute size and
its vitality and tendency to mul-
tiply in the rabbit faster than the
same species of parasites in man,
readily explains the immense and
wide-spread infection in the rabbit
and canine species. Luckily
though, we Texans are not living
in Iceland, and our advanced civ-
ilized methods of preparing and
cooking food, our protected and
wholesome hydrant drinking wa-
ter, and also the abondonment of
eating raw meat has cut a great
figure and added immensely in the
prophylaxis against all sort of par-
asite disease, and we owe it to our
good housewife and hotel cooks in
general that such parasite disease
as echinococcus in man is rather a
very rare occurance in Texas.
Among Texas cattle and sheep this
disease also is hardly known, as
far as I am informed, and the
question naturally arises: Is this
parasite in our rabbit of the same
species as the one that produces
such havoc in some other coun-
tries? That, from its description
and histological appearance, this
embryo-coccus of the jack-rabbit
is near related to the echinococcus
of man, there hardly can be any
doubt. At any rate, though, it
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Menger, R. Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses, book, 1913; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143558/m1/53/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.