DEFINITION OF BOTHRIOCEPHALUS LIGULOIDES. 745 



admit of doubt, apart from the fact that it is these animals (along 

 with other aquatic animals, birds, and seals) that furnish a great part 

 of the food of the above-mentioned hosts. The infection can hardly 

 be difficult, since, according to travellers, the Esquimaux eat the flesh 

 either raw or but slightly cooked, and do not despise even the viscera. 

 No part indeed is put aside as uneatable ; neither care nor cleanliness 

 characterise their cooking, and the food is eaten with gusto when it 

 has been hardened by the frost. 



BothriocephalTis liguloides, Leuckart. 



Ligula Mansoni, Cobbold. 



Cobbold, "Description of Ligula Mansoni, a new Human Cestode," Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 Lond. (Zool.), vol. xvii., p. 78, (with woodcut) 1883. 



This worm, hitherto observed only in the larval form, exhibits in this 

 state a ribbon-like unsegmented body of a somewhat fleshy consistency. It 

 attains a length of 20 cm. and more, and has a median breadth of 2*5 

 mm. Posteriorly the worm becomes somewhat narrower, while anteriorly 

 it is for a short distance widened into a sort of disc. The anterior 

 margin, which is otherwise rounded, bears in the middle a papilli- 

 form elevation, on which the head proper is borne. The latter has a 

 somewhat compressed form, but is usually more or less completely 

 invaginated. No sexual organs are present, nor is there any perceptible 

 difference between the two surfaces of the body. The body is traversed 

 by irregular wrinkles, chiefly transverse, but partly also longitudinal, 

 which probably result from the state of preservation. 



The normal habitat of the worm is the subperitoneal connective tissue 

 of man, especially, it seems, in the lumbar region. It has been hitherto 

 found only in China and Japan. 



The first notice of the existence and occurrence of this peculiar 

 parasite is due to Dr. Manson of Amoy, whom we have recently had 

 to thank for a series of interesting observations on Filaria sanguinis. 

 No fewer than twelve specimens were found in the body of a China- 

 man, who died from dysentery and ulcerating stricture of the 

 oesophagus (after an operation for elephantiasis of the scrotum). 

 With the exception of a single worm, which lay free in the right 

 pleural cavity, the parasites were all found in the region of the fossa 

 iliaca behind the kidneys, embedded in the subperitoneal connective 

 tissue. 1 Some were coiled up, and others more or less extended. 

 They measured in the fresh state 30 to 35 cm., 2 were of a dead white 



1 The history of the patient is given in the Lancet, 14th Oct. 1882. 



2 Cobbold gives the length of the specimens preserved in spirits as 1*2 to 3 '3 inches. 



