740 DESCRIPTION OF BOTHRIOCEPHALUS CORDATUS. 



difference did not amount to the absence of any important character. 

 The structure of the head and of the anterior part of the body, the 

 disposition of the uterus, the abundance of calcareous corpuscles, left 

 no doubt at all as to its identity ; but the general habit was very 

 different, so that a specific distinction was almost suggested. The 

 total length was only about 26 cm., though the number of joints 

 amounted to fully 300. The anterior hundred occupied about 30 

 mm., the middle hundred 100 mm., and the posterior hundred 130 mm. 

 With a breadth of 6 mm., the individual joints were never more than 

 1'3 mm. long, and in a portion near the middle of the worm not more 

 than 0'8 mm. Twenty millimetres behind the head, which measured 

 about 1*5 mm. in both directions, the body had almost attained its 

 full breadth (5 mm.). 



The worm was characterised not only by the shortness of the 

 joints, but by their thickness, which measured between 3 and 4 mm., 

 showing beyond doubt that it was in a very contracted state. This 

 resulted probably from the fact that the worm, immediately after 

 being voided, and still in possession of its full muscular power, was 

 thrown into strong alcohol. There were among the tape-worms from 

 the dog other specimens, which were, in part or altogether, as strongly, 

 or even more strongly, contracted. This was especially well seen in 

 a worm, which, in spite of its 460 joints, measured only 164 mm. in 

 length, and bore posteriorly proglottides only 1/3 mm. long. The 

 breadth (7'5) was greater, of course, than in the above specimen, but 

 the thickness, especially of the lateral regions, was much less. 



Under the circumstances, I have not the slightest doubt that all 

 these worms belong to the same species, and hence it seems to me 

 certain not only that the Greenland dog harbours a species of Bothrio- 

 cephalus different from B. latus, but also that this form occasionally 

 occurs in man. 



Further observations are indeed required as to the frequency of its 

 occurrence in man. In the Greenland dog the species must be one of 

 the commonest intestinal parasites, for all the specimens (about twenty) 

 which I examined were obtained within half a year, and, with the 

 exception of one, in three months ; and that, too, at one place, Godhavn, 

 the seat of the Danish Government inspector. The worms were 

 derived from five dogs, of which two produced one each, a third two, a 

 fourth eight, and the fifth all the others. These last were taken from 

 the intestine of the dog after death, one of them still firmly attached 

 to one of the villi ; the others, some of which had lost the head, were 

 spontaneously expelled from their hosts. 



Whether this species occurs in other localities is still unknown. 

 The report of its discovery in Dorpat has proved to be erroneous. 



