DISEASES PKODUCED BY CYSTICA. 79 



the result of this operation vary so widely. Operators who have 

 accidentally fallen in with cases where the Ccenuri were super- 

 ficially situated, have been successful, and so have gained credit, 

 whilst other cases have completely baffled them. Not only the 

 deep-seated position of the Ccenurus cerebralis occasions the 

 ill success of the operation, but even postponing it so long 

 that their size is already so great as to have produced much dis- 

 turbance in the efficiency of the brain, may render the removal 

 of the worms useless. Further, trepanning may also have come 

 into discredit as an inefficient means of cure for the staggers, 

 from having been applied on the appearance of dizziness which 

 had been produced by other causes than the existence of a 

 Ccenurus cerebralis. 



Here I cannot refrain from remarking, that in the south of 

 Germany, namely, in the Suabian part of the kingdom of 

 Bavaria, the Ccenurus cerebralis not unfrequently appears in 

 oxen; whilst in the north of Germany this disease is scarcely 

 known in cattle. The common occurrence of the staggers 

 amongst these domestic animals is probably the reason why 

 trepanning has been recently tried as a cure for calves affected 

 with the staggers. I have to thank Dr. Gierer, the provincial 

 veterinary surgeon at Tiirkheim, who has performed the ope- 

 ration with success on several oxen, for his very interesting 

 communications on this subject, amongst which the following 

 points appear particularly worthy of notice. 



M. Gierer is persuaded that the disease of the staggers amongst 

 oxen is by no means of very unfrequent occurrence, but as 

 hitherto no certain means of cure has been found for this evil, 

 all the calves affected with the disease have been sold betimes to 

 the butchers. Even M. Gierer, before he succeeded in curing by 

 the trepan, had heard remarkably little in his own circle of the 

 appearance of this disease amongst oxen; now, however, after 

 having thoroughly cured eight and twenty oxen out of thirty 

 which he trepanned, he is able to form some idea of the frequency 

 of the complaint amongst the animals, being consulted oftener 

 than ever about the cure of this disease. 



I have compared several examples of Ccenurus cerebralis which 

 Gierer obtained by trepanning from young oxen, mostly of from 

 about two to three years old, with the Coenurus cerebralis of 

 sheep, and have found no specific difference between the two ; so 

 that I conclude that the Ccenurus of the ox also originates in the 



