THE SOURCE OF BOTHHIOCEPHALUS LATUS IN JAPAN. 



53 



then entirely stopped, so that I felt myself in my iisaal health until 

 the 28^^ of the same month, when slight diarrhœa. began to incon- 

 venience me. On June 1^^ a piece of B. latus, 22.5 cm long, was 

 discharged. Since it had the characteristic terminal proglottis, it was 

 certain that no segments had been previously lost. On the following 

 day, viz. 22 days after the beginning of the experiment, the remainder 

 of the tape-worm body including the head was obtained by means of 

 anthelmintic. It seemed that only one (probably the uninjured) of 

 the two larvœ swallowed had developed into the tape-worm. 



In Mr. Kikuchi's case, intestinal complaint commenced a little 

 later than in mine. In both cases, fœces were subjected to micro- 

 scopical examination from time to time, but Bothriocephalus-eggs 

 were never met with. It seems that it requires a considerable length 

 of time before the worm is ripe enough to let some of its eggs escape 

 from the uterine opening. On June 27*^^ anthelmintic was given 

 to Mr. Kikuchi. Unfortunately however no worm was obtained. 

 Apparently it became lost, proper precautions not having been taken 

 to secure it. After this his complaint entirely ceased. 



The total length of the worm that had grown in me was 315 cm 

 (over ten feet!) and the number of proglottides, as far as could be 

 counted, 1467. Of these the last 617 had their uterus already filled 

 with eggs. Considering that a larva of insignificant size had acquired 

 the above-stated respectable dimension during a period of only '2'1 

 days, the rate of growth is really wonderful and one might doubt 

 the genetic connection between the larva voluntarily swallowed and 

 the tape-worm produced, were it not for the similar results arrived at 

 by Braun and Zschokke. The former experimented not only on cats 

 and dogs but also on three of his students, who had voluntarily 

 offered themselves for the purpose. They were first ascertained to 

 have no tape- worm in the body and then each swallowed 3 or 4 



