321 

 2. Note on Taenia confusa. 



By Henry Baldwin Ward, Ph. D. 



eingeg. 4. August 1897. 



About a year ago I described in the Western Medical Review 

 (Vol. I. pp. 35, 36) a new tape-worm under the name of Taenia con- 

 fusa. Only two specimens of the form were available at that time and 

 I have not been successful in obtaining others since then. During the 

 past year, one of the students in the Zoological Laboratory of the Uni- 

 versity of Nebraska has been conducting a careful investigation of 

 this form and one specimen has been entirely sacrificed to that pur- 

 pose, In advance of the publication of his thesis it seems that I 

 should make a short explanation of one point in which it will perhaps 

 appear lacking. 



The most remarkable peculiarity in the structure of the tape-worm 

 is undoubtedly the head, which was present in one of the specimens 

 only, and which was figured and described in my preliminary report 

 on the species. It has not escaped any who have examined the figure 

 and description that there exists between the head as described and 

 that of Dipylidium a great similarity. In spite of the fact that there 

 are evident minor differences, the general character of the head which 

 was evident on first study, has impressed itself still more on subse- 

 quent examination. The hooks possess precisely the appearence pecu- 

 liar the the genus Dipylidium and have nothing of the form of those 

 hitherto known in the genus Taenia. The general shape of the head 

 is not entirely normal, but this might easily be explained in the single 

 specimen as the result of unusual contraction. So much for the- re- 

 semblance between the forms. 



The head which was attached to the one specimen of Taenia con- 

 fusa was cut off and after having been stained was mounted in balsam 

 in the ordinary manner. There was, furthermore, a label accompanying 

 the specimen throughout the entire series of transfers and it is difficult 

 for me to believe that it could have been confused with any other speci- 

 men, especially since to my knowledge there were no other tape-worms 

 on the table at the same time; but since a confusion may possibly 

 have arisen and since I do not wish to prejudice the work of my stu- 

 dent by allowing him to incorporate in it any doubtful particulars, I 

 have had him complete his paper omitting any reference to the struc- 

 ture of the head. This seemed especially advisable since Dr. Stiles 

 on the occasion of a visit here had the opportunity to examine the 

 head and declared positively that it could be nothing else than the 

 head of a Dipylidium. There is, to be sure, no further evidence than 



