738 DESCRIPTION OF BOTHRIOCEPHALUS CORDATUS. 



number is as a rule less, and usually only 400. The middle of the 

 dorsal surface is traversed by a longitudinal furrow. A similar longi- 

 tudinal furrow is recognisable on the ventral surface below the genital 

 apertures. Especially characteristic and distinctive are the form of the 

 head, the great number of calcareous corpuscles embedded in the paren- 

 chyma of the body, and the structure of the uterus, which is not only 

 narrower and longer, but exhibits a larger number (6 to 8) of lateral horns. 



This worm occurs in the north of Greenland (Godhavn), but has 

 only been found once as yet in man. It is, however, frequent and 

 abundant in the dog, and occurs also, according to Krabbe, 1 in the 

 seal (Phoca barbata) and the walrus. 



I owe my opportunity of investigating this new species to the 

 kindness of my renowned friend Professor Steenstrup, who obtained 

 the worm, along with a large number of other Helminths, from Dr. 

 Olrik, the Danish Government Inspector of Northern Greenland. I 

 was able to compare about twenty specimens, young and old, of which, 

 however, only one was, as above mentioned, derived from the human 

 subject. The latter was accompanied by a history of the patient, 

 which, as translated from Professor Steenstrup, runs as follows : " The 

 worm was obtained from a half-breed, Koren Margrethe, married to a 

 half-breed, Peter Broberg, in Godhavn (North Greenland, 70 N. lat.). 

 The patient is thirty-four years of age, was married in her tenth year, 

 and has four children. She expects in September next (1860) her 

 fifth accouchment. Since the beginning of pregnancy, she has suffered 

 from severe stomachic pains, associated with violent vomiting, and has 

 been otherwise unwell, although in her former pregnancies she had 

 not the slightest symptom of this kind. She was not able to eat any- 

 thing young, neither young bird nor young seal. In the vomit there 

 was no trace of tape- worm, but on the 30th June she voided with the 

 faeces a long, broad tape-worm, which was unfortunately not pre- 

 served. Some days later vomiting again set in, and shortly afterwards 

 (8th July) she voided a tape-worm (Fig. 397). This was smaller 

 than the former, though it measured, when living, fully a finger-breadth 

 in diameter. The patient had never before remarked anything of the 

 kind, and had not even suffered from the Ascarides (Oxyuris), so 

 common among Greenlanders. After voiding the worm, the patient 

 (who it may be mentioned was the sister of my maid-servant) felt 

 somewhat relieved. As the stomachic pains, however, did not cease, 

 she presumed the presence of other worms. The vomiting, however, 

 was alleviated. With the stomachic pains a watery diarrhoea was 

 always associated, in the course of which both worms escaped. Before 



1 " Rech. helminthol.," p. 33 : Copenhagen, 1866. 



