Page:Tropical Diseases.djvu/846

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790
SPARGANUM MANSONI
[CHAP.

transmitted by some blood-sucking insect, and, considering its riverine distribution, he points more especially to the glossinæ.

Sparganum mansoni (Cobbold, 1883)

Synonyms.Ligula mansoni; Bothriocephalus liguloides; B. mansoni; Dibothrium mansoni.

This parasite, the larva of a cestode belonging to the family Dibothriocephalidæ, and, provisionally, to the artificial collective group Sparganum,[1] was discovered

Fig. 159.—Sparganum.
a, Natural size: b, anterior extremity; c, posterior extremity. Extracted from an abscess in a Masai. (After Sambon.)

in 1882 by the writer in making the post-mortem examination of a Chinaman in Amoy. So far only the larval form is known, the size varying according to stage of development. The following measurements have been given: length, 8 to 36 cm.; breadth, 0·1 to 12 mm.; thickness, 0·5 to 1·75 mm. My own specimens measured about 30 to 35 cm. in length, by about 2·5 mm. in breadth. During life they are

  1. This group includes larval stages of bothriocephaloid worms which have not reached a stage of development enabling determination of genus.