DOGS DO NOT HAVE PINWORMS

Much has been written on diseases of animals transmissible to man. This is an important subject, but the coin has another side: some parasites found in man do not originate or spend any part of their life cycle in animals, domestic or otherwise. Very little has been written on this subject, but Turk 1 has written a brief informative account of his experiences with the false accusations of animals, usually pet dogs or cats. Some strange objects passed in the feces of one patient and thought to be parasite ova transmitted by a pet dog were shown to be grape seeds. The parents of a child who had a dog and who had been treated for roundworms kept such a close vigil on the child's stools that they sent a supposed worm to the laboratory. They were relieved but somewhat chagrined to find that the "worm" was an indigestible fiber