Coccyx

“ The pain is caused by pressure, as in sitting, or by any movement involving the muscles attached to the coccyx. The disease is usually caused by traumatism, and in most cases is due to injuries to the coccyx in labor, as a result of which the bone is fractured or dislocated, and becomes fixed in an abnormal position. Sometimes osteitis or necrosis develops. In the unusual cases, in which no structural changes are detected, the condition may be due to rheumatism. Coccygodynia is very rarely found in men. ”

“ Attitude of patient for coccygeal adjustment. Movement
When it has been decided that the coccyx must be moved, the position and use of hand is the same as for the153 palpation. The finger hooks under the tip of the coccyx, draws upon it until a tight contact is secured and then jerks sharply backward upon it with a view to its abrupt fracture. No mitigation of the jerk in the hope of previously loosening or gradually replacing the bone is of value for osseous tissue must be broken before any movement may take place. ”

“ Human Tails.—The prolongation of the coccyx sometimes takes the shape of a caudal extremity in man. Broca and others claim that the sacrum and the coccyx represent the normal tail of man, but examples are not infrequent in which there has been a fleshy or bony tail appended to the coccygeal region. Traditions of tailed men are old and widespread, and tailed races were supposed to reside in almost every country. ”

“ In the pig they are wholly wanting.
The Coccygeal Vertebræ.—These vertebræ, few in number (and sometimes ankylosed) in the human being, form in the latter a small series, the coccyx; which is inclined forwards, that is to say, towards the interior of the pelvis. In quadrupeds, on the contrary, their number is large; they are not ankylosed, and they form the skeleton of the caudal appendix.
The first coccygeal vertebræ—that is, those which are next the sacrum—present characters which are common to those of other regions: they have a body, a foramen, and processes. ”

“ The woman is seated on her coccyx, with only the points of her buttocks touching the ground; the man takes the same position, her vulva facing his member, then the woman puts her right thigh over the left thigh of the man, whilst he on his part puts his right thigh over her left one. ”

“ Likewise, it is claimed man had a certain appendage which shows that there was a time when his anatomical structure was different from his present organism and that there has been a corresponding transformation or change in that structure. The coccyx, or extremity of the human spinal column, is declared to be the vestige of a tail which man formerly possessed but which gradually disappeared when he walked erect and its utility ceased. These statements and demonstrations express the substance of western philosophy upon the question of human evolution. ”

“ Human Intestinal Coccidiosis.
In two cadavers at the Pathological Institute in Berlin, Eimer183 found the epithelium of the intestine permeated by Coccidia. Railliet and Lucet’s case may be traced back to intestinal Coccidia, which were found in the fæces of a woman and her child, who had both suffered for some time from chronic diarrhœa.184 In other cases (Grassi, Rivolta) , where only the existence of Coccidia in the fæces was known, it is doubtful whether the parasites originated in the intestine or in the liver. ”

“ Numerous works confirmed the occurrence of coccidia, not only in all classes of vertebrate animals, but also in invertebrates (Mollusca, Myriapoda, Annelida, etc.) . A large number of genera and species have in the course of time been described which inhabit the epithelium of the intestine and its appendages for choice, but are also found in other organs (kidneys, spleen, ovaries, vas deferens, testicles) . ”

“ Alongside the deceased glands may be found others which are quite healthy. In the parts which are most markedly affected the interglandular connective tissue is infiltrated and slightly thickened. Degoix has never discovered coccidia in the cells of the intestinal mucous membrane itself. The lesions may be met with throughout the large intestine, but are more numerous and grave as the rectum is approached. ”

“ The parasite invariably destroys its host-cell completely. The latter is at first stimulated to abnormal growth and activity and becomes greatly hypertrophied, the nucleus also undergoing karyolytic changes (fig. 4) . The fatty materials elaborated by the host-cell are rapidly used up by the Coccidian, as nourishment; and at length the weakened and disorganized cell is no longer able to assimilate but dies and is gradually absorbed by the parasite, becoming reduced to a mere enclosing skin or envelope. ”

“ The genus brachytarsus is parasitic on coccus, and the grub, not the imago, is the enemy of the white wax insect. The Chinese, therefore, are not far wrong when they pay a lower price for the beetle-infested scales.
When a scale is plucked from the tree, an orifice where it was attached to the bark is disclosed. By this orifice the cocci are enabled to escape from the detached scales. If the scales are not detached, but remain fixed to the bark, it may be asked, “How are the cocci to find their way out?” ”

“ Cockroaches (Blatta orientalis, Blattella germanica, and/or Periplaneta americana) , U.S.A. (McAdow, 1931) .
Chitwood (1932) also listed China for distribution of the worm, but we could not tell which host was involved.
The worms are found in the colon and rectum of the host. Galeb (1878) found as many as 20 individuals in a single B. orientalis. Sobolev (1937) found 52 percent of B. orientalis infected with L. appendiculata; the mean number of worms per roach was 1.5 and the maximum 2. Dobrovolny and Ackert (1934) found 69 percent of 222 P. americana infected with this species. ”

“ If the coccus is less than 1μ in diameter, it is sometimes spoken of as a micrococcus; in fact, this term is very commonly applied to any coccus. When cocci are growing together, many of the cells do not appear as true spheres but are more or less distorted from pressure of their neighbors or from failure to grow to full size after recent division. Most cocci divide into hemispheres and then each half grows to full size. A few cocci elongate before division and then appear oval or elliptical.
The second cell form is that of a cylinder or rod typified by a section of a lead-pencil. ”

“ In all cases, so far as known, the life-cycle is digenetic, an asexual generation (produced by schizogony) alternating with a sexual one (gametogony) . After conjugation of two highly-differentiated gametes has taken place, a resistant oocyst is formed, which provides for the dispersal of the species; inside this sporogony (spore- and sporozoite-formation) goes on.
Hake (1839) was, perhaps, the first to describe a Coccidian, but he regarded the parasites as pathological cell-products. ”

“ Throughout the group the sexes differ to a marked degree. The adult males, which vary but little in all the coccids, are usually minute, and, with few exceptions, two-winged (Fig. 5) ; none has mouth parts, these appendages having become atrophied during metamorphosis, which is complete, while many have one or more hair-like tail appendages. On the other hand, females are never winged; some are comparatively large; all have well-developed mouth parts throughout life, and undergo incomplete metamorphosis, while in many forms the legs and antennæ are lost before maturity. ”

“ Experimental vectors.—Blatta orientalis and Periplaneta americana, South Africa (Porter, 1918) : The cockroaches were fed human excrement that contained cysts of C. mesnili. The cysts passed unharmed through the insects' digestive tract. Rats became infected with this protozoan on eating food that had been contaminated with feces from these cockroaches. ”

“ For, although any one individual only causes the death of a single host-cell, yet the number of the parasites may be so enormously increased by this means, that the entire affected epithelium may be overrun and destroyed. Thus are occasioned grave attacks of coccidiosis, characterized by severe enteritis and diarrhoea, which may end fatally. In the case of the Vertebrates, secondary causes, resulting from the stoppage of the bile ducts, also help to produce death. There is, however, one factor in the endangered animal’s favour. Schizogony cannot go on indefinitely ”

“ Lent me an incubator and gave me various forms of cocci to develop and experiment with from time to time."
"Did you have in your possession at the time of your mother's illness the actual type of bacteria which would produce blood-poisoning?"
"I did. I had had them for two or three days. That was why, when my mother died and the specialists were still quarreling about why she had not responded to the treatment, I began to wonder if my incubator had been tampered with. But you will scarcely credit that, of course. What I am telling you must amount to a practical confession in your eyes." ”

“ Lesions. There is extensive congestion of the intestinal mucosa, with thickening and softening of the epithelium so that it breaks down into a pulp under pressure, also free desquamation with the formation of abrasions, sloughs and ulcers. In some instances extensive croupous casts of the intestine are found. As in the other animals the coccidium is found abundantly in the epithelial cells of the affected parts which swell up and degenerate. When the parasite has escaped from the cells it lives free in the abundant mucopurulent and sanguineous secretions of the bowels. ”

“ Proliferation of the connective tissue may occur around the coccidial nodules, which then contain large numbers of oöcysts in various stages of development. It is said that the oöcysts in the older nodules do not seem to be capable of further development. Schizogony (fig. 73) and gametogony in all stages can be found in both liver and gut.
Young rabbits often die of intestinal coccidiosis before infection of the liver occurs. The repeated schizogony of Eimeria stiedæ in the gut is sufficient to cause death. ”

“ The Coccidae have only a single claw to the foot; the males (fig. 12 a) have the fore-wings developed and the hind-wings greatly reduced, while in the female wings are totally absent and the body undergoes marked degradation (figs. 12, e, 13, a, b) . In the Coccids the formation of a protective waxy secretion—present in many genera of Homoptera—reaches its most extreme development. In some coccids—the “mealy-bugs” (Dactylopius, &c.) for example—the secretion forms a white thread-like or plate-like covering which the insect carries about. ”

“ Of the several kinds of insects injurious to vegetation, the coccids as a family are undoubtedly of major importance, because they infest not one group, or allied group, of plants, as do so many other injurious insects, but an extensive range of widely different plants. Some coccids are much more injurious than others, the San José Scale, for example, having a very virulent toxic influence, while the Greedy Scale may cause but little damage, even when the plant is completely encrusted by it; further, some plants may be more susceptible to injury than others by the same species of coccid. ”

“ In heavy infections the coccidia were found in the head, antennae, mouthparts, muscles, legs, salivary glands, nerve cord, as well as fat body. Infection in freshly collected specimens was about 3 percent; when large numbers of cockroaches were kept together in culture, the rate of infection increased because the insects ate their dead companions. ”

“ After their form has been changed by the action of the growing parasite, they finally perish. The cell membrane then alone surrounds the coccidia, which, at least in the species sufficiently known, begin to propagate by an asexual process (schizogony) , the parasites themselves becoming schizonts, as the initial stage is usually called. They differ from later stages (sporonts or gametocytes) , which resemble them in form, by the absence of granulations in the cytoplasm, as well as by the vesicular nucleus. ”

“ It thus appears that, in Coccidium, the life cycle is more complicated than in the gregarine, in having a period of asexual reproduction by which auto-infection is accomplished, alternating with a period of sexual multiplication during which the parasite is carried from one host to another. ”

“ Fruit of (usually) 5, hairy or nearly glabrous, woody cocci, each with 2 pair of stiff sharp spines, forming a more or less spherical, spiny ball. Of the two pair of spines, one pair is long and one short. The cocci are very variable. Stigmatic lobes larger than the diameter of the styles. ”

“ Spores polyzoic. Founded for I. rara, parasitic in the black slug (Limax cinereo-niger) . Many authors consider that Schneider was mistaken in attributing many sporozoites to this form, and would unite with it the genus Diplospora.
Fam. Tetrasporocystidae, Léger. The oocyst contains 4 spores.
Genus 1. Coccidium, [7] Leuckart. The spores are dizoic and the sporocysts rounded or oval. A very large number of species are known, mostly from Vertebrate hosts. C. cuniculi (= C. oviforme) from the rabbit (intestine and diverticula) , but also occurring sometimes in other domestic animals ”

“ These nearly all belong to one class—micro-cocci. They are minute round bodies about 1/25000 inch in diameter. They possess the peculiarity of growing together in clusters like grapes, or in chains. They are responsible for the diseased conditions of wounds which delay healing, for inflammation around wounds and for the general blood-poisoning which may result.
These organisms are very abundant in the dust of rooms, on dirty clothes and unclean general surroundings, and there can be no doubt that everybody is often infected by them. ”