Abnormal Entozoa in Man. 
y 
A Paper read by Rev. Samuel Lockwood, Ph. D., before the New Jersey State 
Microscopical Society, Nov. 22 1880 
[Reprinted from the American Journal of Microscopy for Januari), ISS!.J [Reprinted from American Journal of Microscopy, for January, 1881.] 
Abnormal Entozoa in Man.' 
BY KEY. SAMUEL LOCKWOOD, PH.D. 
,/AUTSIDE or inside, the Parasite is 
everywhere. Nothing that hath life 
is exempt from invasion by these disturbers 
of health, and hajjpiness. Almost like 
infinitesimal germs, their eggs course 
through the air we breathe, swim in the 
water we drink, enter the ground or settle 
ui)on the plants we till, and infest the food 
we eat. And sometimes these unwelcome 
guests are insidiously introduced to us by 
the animals wre pet, or domesticate. Indeed 
the lower animals have a hard time from 
these tormenting pests. I remember find- 
ing Mr. B. Waterhouse Hawkins in his 
laboratory at Central Park, dissecting a seal 
which had died in the Menagerie there. 
On opening the stomach, he let off some 
mild anathemas against the school children, 
who, he said, had killed the animal. He 
displayed to us about a pint of peltbles, 
buttons, slate pencils, and such like indi- 
gesla, which lay in the animal’s stomach. 
This, to say the least about it, had a very 
abnormal look. But let us see ! Perhaps it 
was the best the animal could do in the 
direction of a natural appetency. Accord- 
ing to Mr. Elliott, who is authority on the 
Pinnipedes, the fur seals in their own 
habitats <tU swallow stones, and in every 
one’s stomach, varying in size from that of 
a walnut, to that of one’s fist, a snarl, or 
ball of Nematode entozoa is found. The 
larger seals, or sea lions, swallow stones 
which weigh from one to two and even 
three pounds each; and in one stomach, he 
found ten pounds of these boulders! Their 
use, he thinks, is “to grind up these inter- 
nal pests.” It may be that their move- 
ments in the stomach, sometimes dislodge 
the parasite when sucking at its walls, thus 
affording a similar temporary relief to that 
afforded by a good “scratching” to the 
victim of Sarcoptes hominis. 
We may readily distinguish in man the 
adventitious from the indigenous entozoa. 
The latter are by scientific consent known 
as Helminths, and the former, although 
not with strict correctness, have been called 
Pseudelmintlis, since, generally they are 
grubs, and not worms. Moreover, among 
the true helminths, or entozoan annelids, 
we find more or less of the phenomena of 
parthenogenesis. Before its life circle is 
accomplished, it has had several animal 
hosts, in each of whom it maintained a dis- 
tinctive form, and mode of existence. The 
grubs, or pseudelmintlis, are really larvse 
of insects, whose changes are known as 
j metamorphoses; and however great these 
changes may be, the beginning-form, the 
larva, or grub, is never wholly lost—for 
even in the imago state, the butterfly is 
really a winged caterpillar, and the true 
fly a grub or maggot, with wings. 
Cobbold cites, but with evident distrust, 
the astonishing tables compiled by Rev. 
J. F. Hope, in which from the Helmintho- 
logical records of nearly all Europe, and 
Great Britain, he instances not less than 
40 genera of insects, whose ljftrvse have been 
* Read before the New Jersey State Microscopi 
cal Society, Nov. 22, 1880. 2 
ABNORMAL ENTOZOA IN MAN. 
entertained in the stomach of man. Strange 
to say, the greater number are coleoptera, 
whereas in America I am not able to find 
one good case of a beetle entozoan ; for we 
are not here considering epizoa, nor those 
parasites, which from without penetrate the 
skin; but those only which enter their host 
by the mucous or alimentary canal. I 
may be allowed to notice here a very re- 
markable case, cited by Westwood, the 
entomologist, and Cobbold, the helmin- 
thologist, from Dr. Pickell’s account in 
“ Transactions of the Association of Fel- 
lows, and Scientists of the King and 
Queen’s College of Physicians in Ireland.” 
A certain Mary Riordan, passed per an um, 
1,206 larvae, one pupa, and one imago of 
the grave-yard beetle, Dlaps mortisaga. 
She had from a superstitious motive been 
in the habit of drinking daily water 
into which she had mingled clay ob- 
tained from the graves of two priests. This 
subject also passed large numbers of the 
common round worm, Ascaris lumbricoules, 
and the not so common A. mystax, indi- 
genous to the stomach of the cat. 
I am disposed to believe that quite often 
the larvae of the diptera, or flies, occupy the 
human stomach unknown, the sufferer at- 
tributing his distress to some other cause. 
Packard cites the Proceedings of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 
phia, for 1859, iij which Dr. Leidy men- 
tions the case of a physician who sirbmitted 
to him a number of larvae which had been 
vomited by a child. He thought they were 
the maggots of the blue-bottle fly, Musca 
vomitoria. Another instance was also men- 
tioned. The sufferer in this case was a 
physician who detected a number of grubs 
in his discharges, when suffering all the 
symptoms of severe cholera morbus. These 
Leidy pronounced as larvae of a species of 
Anthomyia, which it seems he had already 
observed in a patient who had suffered in 
like manner. Murray in his late hand book, 
avers his opinion that the cheese mite, 
flour mite, and milk mite, also the dysen- 
tery mite of Linne, are all one species. 
This last mite gave the dysentery to Roland, 
a student of Linne, who named it Accirus 
dysenteric?. It must be noted here that the 
mites are in Packard’s classification, de- 
graded, or perhaps, undeveloped diptera 
or wingless flies. The urinals of Paris are 
much frequented by the larvae of Teicho- 
myza fusca; and, disgusting though it be, 
the maggots of this fly were evacuated 
by a woman, who had suffered much from 
their presence. 
But we must comq home to some facts 
which prompted the preparation of this 
paper. Last July, a young man, a teacher, 
brought me a number of larvae, which he 
said, he had passed at stool. His appear- 
ance indicated great physical distress. His 
face looked haggard, his eyes dull and 
wild. His sight was affected, and his 
memory impaired. He complained of 
severe gripes in the bowels, like colic, 
and occasionally a sense of distress which 
he could not describe—a sort of feeling 
that lie was going to choke, as it seemed 
that “the worms were crawling up his 
throat.” The “worms,” in question, he 
had passed the day before; and he thought 
that in two weeks he had discharged 
200 of them. He said he thought “they 
kept quieter in his stomach, when he ate 
plenty of meat.” He directed my atten- 
tion to the fact that there were two kinds 
of “worms,” one white, and smooth, and 
round; and the other flattish, and brown, 
and hairy. He further informed me that 
he took his dinner daily to school in a tin- 
pail. Hence, we see, that he dined on 
cold food, which was in large part cooked 
on the previous day. I have the specimens 
here, and we will look at them with the 
microscope. It will be seen that they are 
headless and footless larvae, they are genuine 
fly maggots. I have given some study to 
them, and must pronounce the “ I’ound 
white ones,” the grubs of the meat fly, 
Sarcophaga carnaria, whose life history is 
given in my paper in American Naturalist, 
vol. vii. Unlike the true blow-fly, which 
lays eggs, our meat-fly deposits the grubs 
already born. These tiny objects insinu- 
ate themselves into the creases or folds of ABNORMAL ENTOZOA'IN MAN. 
3 
the meat, and so for a little Avliile are quite 
concealed. They take gratefully to cooked 
meat, and devour it Avith astonishing vo- 
racity. Hoav easily could these be SAval- 
loAved unperceived by a cai’eless eater, 
especially if the taint of the meat had not 
progressed sufficiently to affect the taste 
and smell. 
The brown, hairy, flat grubs belong to 
the group Antliomyia, or flower-flies. It 
is notable, however, that though the resem- 
blance of some species of these flies to each 
other is Arery close, the maggots Avhence these 
resembling species come, are Avidely dif- 
ferent. Some are round and smooth, others 
flat, and hairy. Hence authors divide this 
genus, making two, which they call Antlio- 
myia, the flower-flies, and Homalomyia the 
flat-flies. They are bright, gay, diptera, 
seen in a hot summer day, hovering over 
floAvers, and occasionally dipping into their 
nectar cups. Despite their beauty, however, 
they are all “ bad cattle. ” They deposit their 
eggs on the esculent roots of our gardens; 
also on human ordure; and notably on 
decaying vegetables. The species before 
us, I take to be A. canicularis. A look 
at this grub is suggestive of great tor- 
ment when it becomes an occupant of the 
human alimentary canal. The smooth 
round maggots have spiracles, or breathing 
holes along each side. But as our species 
reArels in the soft animal ordure, and the 
juices of vegetable decay, it is furnished 
with a strange contrivance—starting from 
where each spiracle would be, is a stout 
hair, Avith sprangling bipectinations. These 
ai’e branchial processes. Functionally, they 
are like the gills of a fish, (Walsh,) for Avith 
these they extract the air from the juices in 
which they AvalloAV. It has plenty of other 
single hairs, Avhich are stiff, and sharp- 
pointed. Thus constituted, Avlien found 
where these Avere, Ave may regard them as 
intestinal porcupines. 
But how came these unAvelcome, and 
really abnormal guests, to gain an entrance? 
It was not unlike that Trojan horse busi- 
ness. My young friend had been eating 
cold cabbage. The Sarcopliaga chose the 
meat, and the Antliomyia the cabbage; both 
being perhaps in that hot weather, a little 
over-seasoned by time. 
The larvae were brought to me dead 
and shrunken from being dried up. It 
is to be regretted that Avith such ample op- 
portunity, none Avere furnished me alive, 
so that I might breed the imago. Here 
I would cite from a note in the American 
Naturalist, June, 1875. Says Mr. Judd: Dr. 
Martin of Maysville, Ky., was called to see 
a boy aged 14, who Avas seized Avitli violent 
spasms. A purgative caused the lad to 
pass at one stool fifty maggots. This was 
June 5th. These Avere put into moist earth, 
and on the 17tli, the perfect flies appeared. 
They Avere submitted to Baron Osten 
Sacken, the dipterologist, who pronounced 
them Antliomyia (Homalomyia) scalaris. 
Among the Helminths is the section, 
Nemalelminths. This is divided by Pack- 
ard into two groups, the Nematodes, con- 
taining Stronyylus, the round worms, and 
Ascaris, the pin-worms, both which are 
normal entozoa, to the human subject. The 
next group is the Gordiacea, which has tAvo 
genera, Gordius the Hair snake, vulgarly 
called, and Mermis, the thread worm. 
These are true helminths. I have never 
heard of their being guests in the human 
subject; and yet, as adventitious entozoa, 
it seems to me they must occur. Their 
eggs appear to be so disposed of that they 
find their Avay into insects, terrestrial and 
aquatic. 
The folloAving incident may prove in- 
teresting and instructive. 
Many years ago, I was very successful in 
breeding the NeAV York Stickleback in con- 
finement. My experiments Avere Avith the 
marine, two-spined variety, Gasterosteus 
Noveboracensis. I tried hard, but in vain, 
to breed in like manner, the fresh water 
species, the tiny ten-spined, Pygosteus 
occidentals. At last I got, as I supposed, a 
fine female full of eggs. How I watched 
her day by day, and saAv the abdomen 
steadily distending, but not the least pre- 
paration in the line of providing for an in- 
crease of family—for these little fishes 4 
ABNORMAL ENTOZOA IN MAN. 
are most ingenious nest builders. The 
affair puzzled me a good deal. At last it 
died. I opened the tiny thing, and found 
a hair worm, in a hard knot, which, when 
uncoiled measured nearly six inches. 
Some years ago, Dr. Leidy had sub- 
mitted to him a white thread worm, which he 
pronounced a Mermis, and, strange to say, 
it was taken out of the core of an apple, 
which a person was eating. In 187/(, a 
young man sent me a white thread worm, 
which he had found in the core of an apple 
which he was eating. Having mislaid the 
specimen, I speak from memory, and think it 
was over four inches long. To my surprise, I 
recognized Mermis, and believe it to be M. 
albicans. I learn also that our fellow mem- 
ber, Dr. Williamson, last summer, had a 
case submitted to him, of two of these 
worms in one apple core, their length each 
being some three inches, for no measure- 
ment was made. These phenomena are 
extremely puzzling, and must be regarded 
as very anomalous. 
I have here several inches of tape-worm. 
It is without doubt a Tcpnia solium as all 
the characteristic jiarts are represented. 
The long, so-called neck, and the head, 
with not less than 50 joints, or proglottides, 
of the so-called body. It was taken from a 
well, prized for its clear cold water. The 
man was pumping a pail of water for the 
horse, and observed it in' the water. I have 
made inquiry, and cannot find any way for 
this to have got into the xvell. There is, 
however, a large tree, which overhangs the 
well, and which is often visited by birds. 
True, this is not the kind of Taenia indi- 
genous to birds; but as we have shown that 
non-iiuligenous entozoa do occasionally oc- 
cur, it seems to me both possible and prob- 
able, that a bird dropped it in the well. 
I am aware that this subject is to most 
minds simply repulsive; but would not a 
little knowledge of these matters be very 
wholesome, as it might in many instances 
save from becoming the unwilling host of 
very dangerous guests. 
NOTES. 
With no opportunity to consult manuscript, 
which is with the printers, certain questions 
seem to require a few notes. 
1. It has been asked with an air which seemed 
to imply impossibility: “How could a Merrnis 
«et into an apple?” We think it was in like man- 
ner with tlie Codling-moth, Carpocapsa poino- 
nella. The mother moth lays an egg on the blos- 
som end of the fruit. This hatches, and the tiny 
larva enters the tender fruit, while it is little 
more than the ovule of the flower. But later in 
the year these larva1 finish their changes, and 
themselves become parent moths. These de- 
posit their eggs on the blossom end of the now 
much advanced fruit. These second brood larvae 
penetrate to the core, and if caught by very cold 
weather, may hibernate there. Now the helminths 
when leaving the egg stage, have extraordinary 
boring power. Suppose, then, one at this stage 
to bo accidentally deposited on a growing apple, 
by an infested insect. The rest, we think, might 
be easy. But this does imply a singular change 
of habit. Yet such anomalies do occur. We find 
even the Codling-moth doing a strange thing. 
Dr. Schimer avers that on several occasions, C. 
pomonelln invaded his library, even eating 
through the leaves of the books, to make bur- 
rows in which to pupate and spend the winter, 
and he cautions against storing apples near a 
library. 
2. As to the ovo-viviparous meat-fly, Sarcopliaga 
cnrnaria—that insects can be viviparous has been 
denied by no mean authority. The allegcment 
is that the ova were hatched in the oviduct, being 
retained there too long, the insect failing to find 
a proper nidus in time. We think the following 
three facts oppose the allegation (a) We have 
captured the gravid insects in long repose, and 
squeezed the living larvae from them, ib) The 
frequency of finding tin's fly gravid with live 
grubs, (c) The fact that the Lepidoptera, both 
captured ones, and those bred in confinement, 
will, when under distraint, unduly retain their 
eggs, and then deposit them in very unfavorable 
places, but never, so far as I can learn, do they 
evict the living larva. 
3. The allusion to the absence of partheno- 
genesis in the unfolding of an insect may be 
mistaken by the reader. Even in Biology we 
are sometimes met by phenomena which seem 
irregular and exceptional. Parthenogenesis 
proper, can only be looked for very deep down in 
the scale. We (lnd it in the hemipterous plant- 
lice. the Aphides. And something of that sort has 
been observed even among the Hymenoptera: 
and recently a, similar fact is claimed for a Cole- 
opteran. Still, it may be asserted. that”the phe- 
nomena cited are isolated, and in every way 
aberrant. They are off the normal life-line, and 
are as it were, certain poppings out of differentia- 
tions backward. S. L. 
Freehold, N. .T., Nov. 27,1880.