CEREBROSPINAL NEMATODIASIS

Abstract

OBSERVATIONS on diseases of domesticated animals often have a lengthy incubation period before they are noticed by medical workers; inaccessibility of veterinary journals plays some part, while factual relevance to medical problems may not be quickly evident. Many examples could be given in which, indeed, studies in animal pathology were the start of a train of events leading to the ultimate identification of comparable disorders or focused attention on "new" etiological factors in the production of disease. A classic instance is the observation of Griffith Evans¹(1880) that a trypanosome (Trypanosoma evansi) caused surra (trypanosomiasis) in mules and horses in India. This must have had far-reaching effects, for it surely had an influence on the work of Bruce, Dutton, and Castellani (Scott,²1942) on the cause of African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis) in animals and man, more than 20 years later. The present studies on cerebrospinal nematodiasis may once