On \u3ci\u3eDistoma felineum\u3c/i\u3e Riv. in the United States and on the Value of Measurements in Specific Determinations among the Distomes (1895)

The distomes of cats have received special attention of late in the two papers of Braun (94) and stiles and Hassall (94). The latter authors give a most admirable account of our present knowledge of a dozen allied forms, and record two, D. albidum and D. complexum n. sp., as found in cats in the United States. During the past year I have examined the cats killed at this laboratory, and have found neither of the forms recorded from the east. Distoma felineum, however, which Stiles and Hassall did not find, and which has not been reported hitherto for the United States, is not uncommon here. Among a dozen cats examined last spring, two contained specimens of this species, and one of the four killed this fall was likewise infected. The first cat contained over one hundred of the distomes, and the others approximately one dozen each. The exact correspondence of the forms with the figures and descriptions of Braun and Stiles and Hassall leave little doubt as to the identity of the two forms, and yet there are some points of disagreement which deserve mention, especially since the discovery of the European form in the liver of man in Siberia by Winogradoff adds this species to the list of human parasites