Page:Tropical Diseases.djvu/848

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792
OCULAR SPARGANOSIS
[CHAP.

leave the body of its intermediary host. Analogy and structure suggest that on entering the definitive host the body of the parasite disappears and a tapeworm strobila develops from the posterior part of the surviving head and neck, as in Cysticercus fasciolaris of the mouse, or in the plerocercoid of Dibothriocephalus latus.

Ocular spargauosis.—Casaux and others have recently called attention to the marked frequency in and about the Tonkin delta of the condition they

Fig. 160.—Different forms of Sparganum proliferum. (After Ijima.)

designate ocular sparganosis. Pain, redness, œdema of the upper eyelid, with lachrymation and marked ptosis, lead to an examination and the discovery of an almond-sized indurated nodule. Incision of this reveals a small yellowish fatty mass which on section is found to contain a coiled-up S. mansoni. It is probable that in these cases similar parasites are present in other regions of the body.

Sparganum proliferum (Ijima, 1905)

Synonyms.Plerocercoides prolifer, Plerocercus prolifer.

History.Sparganum proliferum has been reported but once, from Tokyo, Japan. It was found encysted in the subcutaneous tissue in man.