342 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY [II, IV

been offered very recently by MacHattie and Chadwick [ 1932 ] who attribute it to
the action of the sphincter which is present at the opening of the duct of the shell
gland into the ootype. They have also given actual figures of various novel forms
of eggs thus produced in the case of schistosoma bovis [ Sonsino, 1876]. The appear-
ance of the hæmatobium-like eggs in the species S. mattheei Veglia and Le Roux, 1929,
which is considered as a synonym of S. bovis has also been explained on the same
hypothesis.

Identity.—Before offering any remarks on the identity of this parasite it will
be instructive to compare in a tabular form some important features of this parasite
with those of S. spindalis Montgomery, 1906. It is rather surprising to find that
although many workers in India, e.g., Soparkar [ 1921 ], Liston and Soparkar [1918]
and Fairley and Jasudasan [ 1927 ], Fairley and Mackie [1925] have worked on the
other aspects of the species S. spindalis Montgomery, 1906, nobody since the origi-
nal author has touched the morphological side of the parasite which presents, as
will be seen later, such interesting features. The only detailed description of the
species obtainable at present is that of Montgomery himself [ 1906, 2 ]. Vryburg
[ 1907 ] also gave a description of the parasite from the specimens that he had
obtained in Sumatra, but it is restricted to some external features and the measure-
ments of the eggs only. Porter [ 1926 ] recorded a new variety which differs from
the original species only in respect of the dimensions of the eggs and the cercaria
which were smaller than in the Indian forms.