Study of a series of lower vertebrates and 2 primates infected with Schistosoma haematobium has revealed their egg producing or egg passing potentials. Viable eggs were not passed by albino or wild rats (R. rattus), or by hedgehogs (Hemiechinus). In hosts passing eggs the counts were not great but data do suggest host-parasite relationships which permit continuance of the parasite cycle. Egg passage was erratic and tended to follow a normal curve, i.e., few eggs at first, building up to a peak period after which the counts usually diminished. There was no close correlation between the sites of egg deposition along the intestinal tract and the numbers of egg produced. The peak of egg production was irregular in time after first egg detection as well as in duration. There was wide range in the percentages of viable eggs passed by different hosts and by individuals of the same species. Data reveal the possibility of lower vertebrates serving as reservoirs should satisfactory circumstances allow.

A modified form of the Seinhorst “Mistifie.” is described which allows the quantitative recovery of nematodes from infested material. Experimental results are given showing the high rate of recovery in a short time, the recovery from a known number of nematodes and a not excessive degree of variation between recoveries from a replicated series of mistifier units. These results are discussed and the value of the technique for replicated quantitative work is stressed.

Seven mature males and as many females, mature or gravid, were taken from the large intestine of Sus leucomystax Temm. by Dr. Shozo Watanabe of the Institute of Veterinary Hygiene in Niigata Prefecture on 2nd March, 1940. A careful comparison of them with related species has revealed that they represent a distinct species, for which the name Oesophagostomum watanabei is proposed in honor of the collector.

As an old student of Emeritus Professor R. T. Leiper it gives me great pleasure to contribute something for the Anniversary number. It was indeed an ordeal for me to decide what to contribute in honour of this famous man who is happily still with us.

Two out of three guineapigs received some degree of protection against an oral dose of A. suum eggs after the intraperitoneal injection of immune anti-Ascaris guineapig serum.

The widespread distribution in Britain of the grey squirrel prompted an investigation of the parasite fauna of this rodent to find if it was capable of acting as a disseminator of parasites to other mammals or birds, particularly domesticated ones.

1. An introduction to a study of immunity against A. suum in the pig is given. A review of the literature on the life cycle, a note on terminology and a general discussion on immunity to helminths has also been included.

2. By first removing the procomplementary activity of pig serum to guineapig complement with hydrochloric acid, it was possible to apply the complement fixation test to a study of the antibody response to experimental infection with A. suum.

3. Using an alcoholic extract of uterus, oviducts and ovaries of the adult female Ascaris worm as antigen, antibodies against this nematode were first detected in two experimentally infected pigs ten days after infection. A peak of antibody concentration from the thirteenth to the seventeenth day of infection was followed by a decline in the antibody content of the serum to the forty-first day; after which no antibody was detected.

The material described in this paper consists of ten mature males and ten females obtained from the intestine of a Colobus monkey (Colobus sp.) which died on its way to London, from West Africa. The specimens were collected at the London Zoo Prosectorium. On detailed study, they proved to belong to two different, hitherto unknown, species of the genus Enterobius. These two species differ markedly in the length and shape of the spicule and number of caudal papillae. There are six males and a number of females of one species, which is named E. pesteri n.sp and two males of another species, E. inglisi n.sp.

Helminths from wild animals are from time to time submitted to Onderstepoort for identification and comment. Among this material are two lots of worms from carnivores which are of particular interest. One lot contains an undescribed Rictularia sp. from a Genet which is remarkable for the number of worms, over 30, collected from a single host; as a rule the number of Rictularias collected from an individual animal is very limited consisting of no more than three or four specimens and then usually only females are present. The other lot from a mongoose is of interest because of the location of the worms—liver—and their number—about 60; this parasite also appears to be new to science.

By exposing potato plants in pots to a graded series of inocula of cysts of Heterodera rostochiensis, effects on the plant host have been investigated in terms of growth of shoots and tubers. High inocula reduce both criteria severely, but it appears that longer shoots and a larger weight of larger tubers are produced by plants exposed to a very low inoculum than by uninfested controls.

Effects on final eelworm population show that multiplication is highest at the lowest inocula but that the net highest population results from a moderate inoculum. Thus, the kind of inoculum which would stimulate crop yields, would also lead to a large eelworm population: highest potato yields were associated with an eelworm multiplication factor of about ten-fold.

One male and three female specimens belonging to the genus Amplicaecum were present in a collection of nematodes in the British Museum, Natural History, made available to me through the courtesy of Dr. W. G. Inglis.

The stimulus for the hatching of infective eggs of Ascaridia galli in vitro depended upon the concentration of undissociated carbonic acid plus dissolved gaseous carbon dioxide, the oxidation-reduction potential, and the hydrogen ion concentration. There was considerable overlap in the conditions which favoured the hatching of eggs of Ascaridia galli and Ascaris lumbricoides; both would be expected to hatch in the small intestine of a suitable species of host.

Four male specimens of this species were once collected from the white necked Stork, Dissoura episcopus episcopus. The worms occurred under the horny layer of the gizzard.

Contrary to the opinion expressed in various manuals of parasitology and pathology, cases of germ-carrying by the larvae of parasitic worms from the intestines of an organism, remain extremely rare. Similarly the intestinal mucosa of the intestines damaged by parasites does not necessarily form “a gate through which takes place infection” of bacteria and viruses. This is additionally proved by experimental research conducted in the first place by Taylor (1935), Enigk (1954), Stefański (1956), as well as by Stefański and Zebrowski (1958) and also by Przyjalkowski (1958).

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