ANIMAL PARASITES. 45 



clothes, wishes to remove these moist, cool bodies, and if he does 

 not go about this in a peculiarly cleanly fashion, but seizes the 

 proglottides with his fingers, he might have contaminated the 

 latter with eggs. Or in the examination of the Tania expelled 

 by medical treatment, in pulling away those hanging down from 

 the anus, or in touching the vessels in which the tape-worms lie, 

 and on the margins of which their white eggs are very often found, 

 the patient, or those around him (servants), may contaminate 

 their fingers with these eggs. This I have seen only too often, 

 and always warned those interested against such an occurrence. 

 Now, if the last-mentioned individuals have not washed their 

 hands perfectly clean, or if they have forgotten to wash them 

 altogether, and then incautiously put them to the mouth, 

 their infection with eggs, and consequently with Cysticerci, 

 is rendered possible. In the examination of freshly-expelled 

 Tanice, especially T. solium, I have always made it a rule 

 to take the most anxious precautions; in seeking the heads of 

 the expelled worms, I always disentangle the latter by means of 

 two pairs of forceps, of which I hold one in each hand, at as great 

 a distance from their tips as will still allow me to hold objects 

 firmly. On the other hand, I by no means hesitate, when pressed 

 for time, to disentangle Tania which have been long preserved in 

 spirits, even with my fingers in case of necessity, and I regard the 

 fact mentioned by Moller, that Cystic, celluloses have been reared 

 in Paris from eggs of Tcenia solium preserved in spirits, as quite 

 impossible, and evidently a mistake. ( Vide ' Gazette Medicale/ 

 1854.) Moreover, a transfer of the eggs of tape- worms into the 

 mouth might take place unconsciously with persons infested with 

 these worms, or their bedfellows; such persons grasping with 

 their hands whilst asleep after the proglottides moving about upon 

 their bodies, and producing an unpleasant sensation in consequence 

 of their moisture ; or scratching themselves on the places passed 

 over by the proglottides, and then carrying the hands thus em- 

 ployed to the mouth. In all these cases, however, the infection 

 would take place by the introduction of the eggs from without 

 into the mouth and stomach, and therefore in the ordinary way. 



But the person infested by Tcenice may also infect himself with 

 Cysticerci, without the previous escape of the proglottis from the 

 intestine, when the proglottis itself, instead of progressing down- 

 wards, passes upwards in the intestine, and therefore towards the 

 stomach ; or when it is carried there forcibly during vomiting, by 



