CAVE CANEM!

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1953, 25 September 1888, Page 3

CAVE CAN EM !

A Dunedin- paper advises its readers to " Beware of the Dog," and emphasises its warning by adducing some startling facts which cannot be too widely known. Some of our readers aro probably ac quainted with the circumstance that the dog is subject to a parasite—scientifically termed Tccnia echinococcus, or the hydatid tapeworm — which is comrau--1 nicable to man and to many of the domestic animals, but the majority of the general public are probably unaware that cases of disease amongst human beings, caused by the transference of this malignant parasite from the dog to man, are largely on the increase m the Australasian colonies. Possessed of this information and being authorised by medical experts to regard the outbreak of this very unfamiliar disorder as of a very serious nature, the paper m question, the " Star," states that it has, m the interests of the public, made enquiries into the matter, and presents oertain results of those enquiries, the consideration of which may well put people on their guard. The tapeworm of the dog, it may be explained, is not the common tapeworm as developed m the human body. Tho latter parasite sometimes attains a length of upwards of twenty feet, while that of the dog is the most insignificant looking of its kind, its average length being a quarter of an inch. However, what it lacks m size it makes up for m fecundity, and to infection with this repulsive and dangerous parasite is to be traced, we are assured, the loss of much human life. Our contemporary says t — " The liability and frequency of infection with this hydatid disease appears to be proportioned to tho prevalence of intimate association with the dog. In Iceland, m which it is said every peasant owns halfa dozen dogs, which share his dwelling with him, it is also reported that one* sixth of all the deaths aro duo to the hydatid parasite.

When a dog happens to . be infested, wherever it goes it distributes the eggs of this parasite. These eggs make their way amongst the herbage, and are cnrru d alto at by divers agencies — wind, rain, and even insects. The grazing cattle swallow the eggs. In three months after that— though it is pretty nearly fifteen months before the parasites »re fully developed — the organs of their bodies become stuffed with juvenile hydatids. From the little eggs, j which have undergone digestion m the | stomachs of the cattle, there have escaped multitudes of six-hooked embryos, and these, having passed through the coats of the stomach, have at length settled down m the liver and other organs. These hydatids, when they are perfectly developed, contain what are called cchinococcus heads. The head is something like the head of an ordinary tapeworm ; it has- a double row of hooks, and f ;ur suckers. The heads are very numerous ; you muy reckon 10,000 m one hydatid. Now, supposing a dog was to swallow one of these bydatids from the liver of a pig, every ono of the heads which that hydatid conta.ned — whether it was 10,000 or 300,000 m number — would m seven weeks develop into a hydatidforming tapeworm." A dog infested with these creatures becomes, as we havo seen, a distributor of their ova, and these may be absorbed into the human system through the drinking ot contaminated water or eating contaminated vegetables. It is, therefore, all the more alarming to learn that " ordinarily, the hydatid disease is beyond the reach of medical treatment. The mercurials, and potassium iodide havo been recommended, but the results are very doubtful" Indeed it is asserted that a cure can only be effected by surgical treatment, and that this ip not always practicable as the worm frequently attacks the vital organs. In the course of an interview with a representative of the journal from which wo have quoted, a leading medical man m Dunedin was asked as to whether the impure water used m the tanks of the public schools occasioned the disease. He replied that " It just depends, of course, on whether dogs can get at the water. There would be a special danger if the water supply was liable to be polluted by dogs m the neighborhood of abattoirs, for these dogs would m all probability have fed on livers that were charged with the germ of the disease." He also paid that the disease was very prevalent m Dunedin, and that scarcely a week passed m which a case of hydatids was not reported m that city, or its neighborhood. The parasite under notice is not improbably the same as that found recently m rabbits by Dr Mclntyre of Timaru, and if so, the circumstance goes to show how the danger may be spread. In that case we are told the parasite was a tapeworm a quarter of an inch m length — thus answering to the " Star's" description of the dog hydatid. The telegram sent us from Timaru on this subject at the time made no reference to the cysts m which the parasites enclose themselves when they infest animals other than those m which they originally develop. There, therefore, is some doubt as to whether the rabbit parasite is identical with the dog hydatid or the human tapeworm — the latter, we think, m no case forms cysts, and if this be so it should always be found m the intestines. Dr Mclntyre says that the colonies of tapeworms found by him m the rabbit were at first supposed to be fat, and j" therefore, it is probable that they are the dog parasite. Whether or not this be the case, there is quite enough m the statements of the " Star " to induco great caution against the spread of so terrible an infection, and the following suggestions offered to that end by our contemporary should certainly be acted upon, viz., that

1. No piggeries or abattoirs should be ! permitted ia the vioinity of the water supply 0! cities. . 2. Tho inspootora of moat markets should 1 have a thoroughly ezhaußtive and soientilio knowledge of all questiona rolating to disease of food, 8. Meat and vegetables should be well cooked. No parasites can survive a temperature of 122deg, if it be prolonged for ono single minute. 4. Water should be boiled and filtered. To these we may add the farther caution to everybody who has a dog abont tho premises — and who has not ? —that vessels containing drinking water, and plateß and dishes or other utensils m or upon whioh food is to ho placed should always bo kept out of tho reach of those animals.