Chlamys

“ CONSTANTI\'S NOB CAE-S Gep. Büste n. 1. mit belorbertem Helm, mit der Rechten Lanze schulternd, in der Linken reich dekorierten Schild haltend. Rv. GENIO POPV-LI ROMANI / B - * / TR Genius nackt von vorne, Kopf mit Modius n. 1., Chlamys über der 1. Schulter, in der Rechten Patera haltend, Füllhorn in der Linken. 9,94 g. RIC VI, 188, 342var. (Av.-Legende) . Sehr seltene I rariante. Imposante Büste. Ausgezeichnete schwarzbraune Patina.
Av. Vorzüglich. Rv. Gutes sehr schön CHF 450,-
91 Aureus, slätmliM, 293-295. ”

“ The worms could be obtained from day to day by simply pricking any portion of the body with a finely pointed needle. To this hæmatozoon Lewis gave the trinomial term Filaria sanguinis hominis, which thus fitly distinguished it from the Filaria papillosa hæmatica canis domestici described by Grube and Delafond. Dr Lewis found the average size of the parasite to be 1/75′′ in length by 1/3500′′ in breadth. He observed that while it exists in the blood the body is enclosed in a delicate transparent tunic or cyst. The worm was never absent from urine in chyluria. ”

“ One of Chammy’s mottoes was “Perceverantia vincit” (Perseverance overcomes) , and if his master put him back on his perch a hundred and fifty times after he, Chammy, had made up his mind to reach the top of that curtain, or get out at the window to climb a tree, he would watch his chance, bide his time, and begin all over again.
That is the sort of chameleon Chammy was.
The deliberation manifested in all the droll animal’s movements was something to watch and wonder at, and afforded no end of amusement to Lizzie and Tom. He never lifted more than one leg at a time. Not he. ”

“ When Chammy saw a fly that he had taken a fancy to, he would stalk cautiously along towards it, one leg at a time of course, and if the fly was fool enough to wait there long enough, why, it got caught and swallowed, that was all. If it didn’t, why Chammy evinced no great degree of disappointment, another fly would be sure to come. Everything comes to the chameleon who waits. ”

“ In the female both chelipeds are small and feeble, but in the males one of them, either the right or the left, is enormously enlarged, sometimes exceeding in length and breadth the body of the Crab which carries it. What the precise use of this enormous claw may be does not seem to be quite certainly known. It is said to be used as a weapon by the males in fighting with one another, but it seems too clumsy to be very efficient for this purpose. ”

“ If some other animal were to induce the chamois to believe that it should at the least have feet with suckers to them, like a fly, before venturing in such breakneck places, or if by any means it could get to know how bad a foot it really has, there would soon be no more chamois. The chamois continues to exist through its absolute refusal to hear reason upon the matter. ”

“ Chagas is led to believe that the occurrence of sexual forms constantly in the blood of man implies a greater resistance to infection on the part of man than on the part of guinea-pigs or other animals, assuming the general hypothesis that the formation of gametes represents a reaction of the Protozoön to unfavourable conditions. In human infection the number of parasites is always less than in laboratory animals, and their presence in the blood is transitory, lasting from fifteen to thirty days in acute cases. ”

“ It is probable that this capsulated organism is merely a secondary invader.
There is also a suggestion of the cellular reaction characteristic of the chlamydozoa.
The disease is rather more common in women than in men and is rarely seen before the period of puberty. It is thought that it is transmitted by sexual intercourse.
Pathology
The pathological process manifests itself as a small round cell infiltration of the superficial portion of the corium. The growth is well supplied with blood vessels. Giant cell formation and caseation have not been noted. There is an abundance of plasma cells. ”

“ Of fleas, any species which attacks both rodents and man may be an agent in the transmission of the plague. We have seen that in India the species most commonly implicated is the rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis, (= Lœmopsylla or Pulex cheopis) (fig. 89) . This species has also been found commonly on rats in San Francisco. The cat flea, Ctenocephalus felis, the dog flea, Ctenocephalus canis, the human flea, Pulex irritans, the rat fleas, Ceratophyllus fasciatus and Ctenopsyllus musculi have all been shown to meet the conditions. ”

“ Well, I have been writing about this queer pet all the time as if it had been a male. But the truth is, it turned out to be as Tommie said, a “her chameleon,” for lo! and behold it was discovered one morning that Chammy had laid some eggs. She put them all together in a heap in the corner and appeared to be employed all the time lifting and counting them and feeling them over. There were five altogether, about the size and shape of small beans, and pink in colour.
Chammy ate no food after this. She didn’t even seem to care to come any more to warm her toes at the stove. ”

“ Now, I have noticed that some very small animals have very small fleas; and {105} that, one would imagine, is as it should be, since fleas are small to begin with, because they cannot afford to be large, and the flea that would be safe on a dog would be an unsuitable parasite for so small a creature as a mouse. The common shrew is an example. It has often happened that when in an early morning walk I have found one lying dead on the path or road and have touched it, out instantly a number of fleas have jumped. ”

“ The proboscis acts as an inoculatory needle. No part of the life-history of the disease-causing organism must necessarily be carried on in the body of the fly; it is conveyed mechanically and without change from an infected to a healthy subject. The mouth parts can pick up the anthrax bacillus, and if the fly then alight upon a wounded{177} surface it will set up woolsorter’s disease. It, together with the flea, is accused of transmitting the plague bacillus, not only from man to man, but from rat to man. Flies are active agents in disseminating cholera ”

“ Chyluria.—Exceedingly rare in Fiji. Theory would demand an obstruction above the point of entry of the lacteals, viz., the pre-aortic lymphatic glands, but in cases in temperate regions it may occur without any such lesion. In some of these cases the fluid is not chyle (fat absent) , but presumably lymph. A discussion of the mode of production of chyluria, lymph scrotum, elephantiasis, etc., is at present premature; theory has far outrun fact. ”

“ The minute hæmatozoa in question—hitherto described as Wucherer’s Filariæ, Filaria sanguinis hominis, Trichina cystica, Filariose dermathemaca, and so forth—are frequently associated with the presence of certain more or less well-marked diseases of warm climates.
3. The diseases referred to include chyluria, intertropical endemic hæmaturia, varix, elephantiasis, lymph scrotum, and lymphoid affections generally, a growth called helminthoma elastica, a cutaneous disorder called craw-craw, and also leprosy. ”

“ Schaudinn has discovered and worked out true syngamic processes, some bisexual, some exogamous, in several other Rhizopods. In Chlamydophrys stercorea the pairing-cells are equal, and are formed by the aggregation of the chromidia into minute nuclei around which the greater part of the cytoplasm aggregates, while the old nucleus (with a little cytoplasm) is lost. These brood-cells are 2-flagellate pairing-cells, which are exogamous: the zygote is a brown cyst; if this be swallowed by a mammal, the original Chlamydophrys appears in its faeces. ”

“ Chagas thinks that the gametes for the cycle in Lamus arise from parasites developing in the lungs of the vertebrate host. Flagellated parasites enter the lungs, lose the flagellum and become oval in shape, later on dividing into 8 parts. These assume an elongated form and enter the red cells of the host. Against this is the statement of various observers that the flagellates are only to be found free in the plasma, never within red cells. The forms taken up by Lamus multiply in the intestine and then pass to the salivary glands after about 8 days. ”

“ Of those parasites which remain in the human blood the male ones (microgametocytes) soon perish, the females (macrogametocytes) persist for some long time, and perhaps at last acquire the capacity of increasing by schizogony. They might thus form merozoites which behave in the body as if they had proceeded from ordinary schizonts (fig. 80, 13c-17c) . If their number increases sufficiently, in course of time the patient, who was apparently recovering, has a new series of fever attacks, or relapses, without there having been a new infection. ”

“ No specimens are available from the southeastern part of the range of D. o. chapmani. Animals from the northwestern part of the range of D. o. ordii, without exception, have dark-colored pelage which is characteristic of D. o. chapmani. In the shape of the nasals, vault of the braincase, interorbital width and auditory bullae, animals from Rice, Arizona, resemble D. o. chapmani, but in other characters resemble D. o. ordii to which subspecies they are referred. Animals from 20 miles northeast of Calva, Arizona, are dark-colored and are intermediate between the dark D. o. ”

“ It is evident to any one acquainted with zoology that, whatever may be the Hebrew word, "Chamois" cannot be the correct rendering, inasmuch as this animal does not inhabit Palestine, nor are there any proofs that it ever did so. The Chamois frequents the lofty inaccessible crags of the highest mountains, finding its food in the scanty herbage which grows in such regions, appearing on the brink of awful precipices, and leaping from ledge to ledge with ease and safety. We must, therefore, look for some other animal. ”

“ The elegantly-formed creatures on the right are chamois (Rupicapra tragus) , almost the only European antelopes, and wholly confined to the higher mountains, from the Pyrenees to the Carpathians and the Caucasus. The chamois is the only species of the genus, and is thus perhaps the most characteristic European mammal. The bird on the left, above the badgers, is the Alpine chough, (Fregilus pyrrhocorax) . ”

“ Lewis also found Filariæ in the kidneys and supra-renal capsules of a woman who died of chyluria. It did not appear probable that the worms underwent further development in the human body. On this point Lewis remarks:—“Not only may those hæmatozoa found in man live for a period of more than three years, but there is no evidence that they have any tendency to develop beyond a certain stage as long as they remain in the circulation.” Dr Lewis judged that the form of chyluria associated with this condition of the blood was local and intimately related with a tropical climate. ”

“ The neck bends under the margin of the carapace, but remains partly exposed. The nuchal shield is absent except in two Northern Australian species. There are twelve pairs of marginal shields. The plastron is composed of nine plates, and is covered with thirteen shields, one of which is the conspicuous intergular. The temporal region of the skull shows great diversity. It is quite open in Chelodina, covered in by broad expansions of the parietal bones in Platemys, Emydura, and Elseya, or bridged over by a parieto-squamosal arch, which is very slender in Rhinemys, strong in Chelys and Hydraspis. ”

“ In the first place, the jumping power of these fleas is very small and [78] the muscles in the thorax are consequently reduced. In the second place, the value to the insect of a contracted thorax is obvious; for the abdomen of a chigoe fixed on or in the skin of an animal does not project so much as it would were the thorax of normal length. The troublesome parasite is, therefore, less likely to be rubbed off by the host.
In most fleas the piercing organs of the mouth (upper lip and mandibles) are directed obliquely downwards. In the chigoes they are directed obliquely forwards. ”

“ If it is true that parasites are reacquired each spring—we assume that no temperature factors or immune reactions are delaying development of the worms, and no unusually long external ovic or free-living phase is a necessary part of their life-history—then the host-parasite data can be used as a basis for hypothesizing about the winter life of the salamander. ”

“ Other allied species are found on Hermit Crabs and other Decapods. When extracted, the parasite is seen to have a flat and curiously distorted body, with extremely short legs ending in hooked claws. The under-side is generally occupied by a relatively enormous mass of eggs, which is only partly covered [222] in by the small brood-plates. The mouth parts form a short piercing beak with which the parasite sucks the blood of its host. On the under-side of the abdomen may usually be found the minute male, attached, like a secondary parasite, to the body of the female. ”

“ Mankind is, occasionally, bitten by a variety of other species besides Pulex irritans. In hot countries the chigoe (Dermatophilus penetrans) is a serious and troublesome pest, particularly to bare-footed people. In temperate regions there are rat-fleas, cat-fleas, dog-fleas and bird-fleas which occasionally transfer themselves to man and feast on his blood. But, on the whole, hunger and propinquity rather than free inclination seem to actuate these fleas of which man is only the occasional host. ”

“ Like most other mountain ungulates, the Chamois dwell high in summer, and in winter they seek lower and more sheltered situations. They are exceedingly wary and agile, and sure-footed on dangerous ground. ”