662 DESCRIPTION OF MNIA FLAVO-PUXCTATA. 



I borrow the foregoing diagnosis (with the exception of some 

 insignificant details) from the description given by Weinland (loc. 

 cit?) of some worms bequeathed by Dr. Ezra Palmer to the Museum 

 of the Society for Medical Improvement in Boston, Mass. The 

 specimens had been determined as BothriocepJialus, and preserved 

 in spirit. The six longer specimens, investigated by Weinland, 

 measured altogether about three feet, and were voided by an otherwise 

 healthy child, that had been weaned about six months before, without 

 any suspicion being entertained of the presence of the parasite. 



At my request, Dr. Weinland was kind enough to send me for 

 investigation about an inch of this tape- worm. This portion was from 

 the middle of the worm, and exhibited hardly anything else than a 

 countless number of eggs, which filled the whole interior of the joints, 

 with the exception of the clear, thin, enveloping wall. The only 



thing else that could be dis- 

 tinguished was a clear, club- 

 shaped organ, occupying a 

 transverse position upon the 

 anterior border of the joints, 

 and the rounded end of which 

 extended about as far as the 

 middle line of the worm, but 

 the other was continued into a 

 thin canal, which ran towards 

 the adjacent lateral border, 

 and there terminated in a dis- 

 FIG. 345. Ripe proglottides of Tania flavo- tinct opening. The analogy 



punctata, one barren. ( x Qf ^^ ^^ ^ ^ ^^ 



forms enabled me to recognise in this structure the vagina with the 

 large receptaculum seminis. The cirrhus-pouch eluded observation, 

 but whether on account of the opacity of the preparation, or because 

 of its complete disappearance, I cannot decide ; very probably it is of 

 small size. There are, moreover, so many resemblances between 

 Weinland's species and Tcenia nana, not only in regard to the 

 formation of the vagina, but in other respects, that I have not the 

 slightest doubt of their near relationship. The formation of the eggs 

 is also the same, with the exception, indeed, of the difference in size, 

 which is in favour of the North American species. Weinland 

 certainly describes three egg-membranes in his species, but, in spite of 

 careful investigation, I have been unable to distinguish more than two, 

 which are identical with the inner and outer ones of Weinland. The 

 thin, middle membrane, which is said to cling closely to the former, 

 and to be always wrinkled in the preserved specimens, I have never 



