70 



LECTURE IV. 



The head and neck of this specimen are represented of the natural 

 29 size in fig. 29. and magnified in fig. 30. Instead of the 

 i coronet of hooks and circle of suckers which charac- 

 terise the head of the Tcenia solium, it forms a simple? 

 elongated, sub-compressed enlargement, with an anterior 

 obtuse prominence, fig. 29, a, and two lateral sub-trans- 

 parent parts separated by a middle opake tract. Accord- 

 ing to Bremser, the margins are slightly depressed, form- 

 ing what are termed the bothria or pits, ib. b, b, whence 

 the generic name of this tapeworm. There is no trace 

 of joints for a short distance from the head : these are at 

 first feebly marked ; then the segments expand posteriorly, 

 and slightly overlap the succeeding ones : their length 

 nearly equals their breadth. At sixteen inches from the 

 head a slight prominence at the middle line, the anterior 

 part of the ventral surface of the segment, indicates the 

 genital apertures. These become conspicuous in the pos- 

 terior segments, and are two in number, situated on the 

 same prominence (fig- 30.). 



The tegumentary and muscular systems appear to re- 

 semble closely those in the Tcenia solium. Dr. Eschricht 

 could not discern any trace of nerves. Of the nutrient 

 system, he obtained evidence only of the submarginal 

 longitudinal canals : by placing the recent segments in 

 dilute acetic acid, he coagulated the contents of these 



Head and neck, , . , i • r« i i • 



Bothr. latus. cauals, wliicli wcrc then manifest by their opacity and 

 whiteness. How the nutritious fluid is absorbed by the Bothrio- 

 cephalus Eschricht was unable to discern : he supposes, analogi- 



occuiTed in 1 834. She had also distorted spine and other indications of a weakly 

 constitution. Thrice, in that year, oil of turpentine with castor oil, and once some 

 strong drastic pills and pomegranate rind, were administered ; and, with the excep- 

 tion of the last medicine, which produced no effect, each time from twelve to twenty 

 feet of the wonn were expelled, but Avithout the head. In the spring of 1835 she 

 was induced to try a remedy called " Schmidt's cure," which consists of strong 

 coffee, and salt hen'ing ; and it was followed by the expulsion of a piece of the 

 worm measuring ten yards, still without the head. She then paid a \asit to Peters- 

 burg, and there parted with four or five pieces of the tapeworm measuring from two 

 to four feet in length. She returned to Copenhagen in the winter of 1835, still 

 suffering from her pertinacious parasite. Castor oil and turpentine were again ad- 

 ministered on the 3rd of December, and procured the ejection of two pieces of the 

 tapeworm, measuring together twelve feet in length, but without the head. Eighteen 

 days afterwards, Nouffer's remedy, which consists of a preparation of fern seed, was 

 resorted to, whereupon the remaining part of the worm, twenty feet in length, with 

 the neck and head, came aAvay, and all the symptoms of the malady disappeared, 

 and had not returned in 1838, when this instructive case was recorded. 



