APPENDIX 



285 



I have referred to the defective evidences supplied by the returns 

 of the Registrar- General in respect of the echinococcus disease. 

 My object is not to cast blame upon those whose duty it is to 

 publish the returns, but rather to call attention to the advan- 

 tages that would follow if the Registrar- General were supplied 

 with full and accurate information on this head. 



Through the courtesy of Mr Noel A. Humphreys I have been 

 furnished with the following official statement of the number of 

 Deaths from Worms in England and Wales, as recorded in the 

 Annual Reports of the Registrar- General throughout a decade 

 of years : 



Considering the prodigious advances in helminthology during 

 the last half century, it is certainly remarkable that under the 

 category of "worms/' as a cause of death, only two kinds of 

 true helminths should be mentioned in the Registrar's record. 

 It will also strike the experienced hospital and dispensary 

 physician as somewhat remarkable that of the two death-pro- 

 ducing parasites above named one of them should be the " tape- 

 worm." Now death from Tcenia is certainly a very rare occur- 

 rence, although grave nervous symptoms are not unfrequently 

 due to its presence in man. Thus, I am inclined to regard the 

 46 reported instances of death from this cause as a redundant 

 estimate. On the other hand, I am surprised to see no specified 

 instances of death from lumbricoid Ascarides, from Oxyurides, 

 or even from Cysticerci, which now and then take up their 

 residence in the human brain. 



As regards hydatids I believe the returns to be excessively 

 deficient. In place of an average of 34 deaths annually from 

 this cause in the United Kingdom I am of opinion that at least 

 400 deaths are due to hydatids. This opinion and the data on 

 which it was founded were communicated by me twelve years 

 ago to the Linnean Society, and I have since become acquainted 

 with facts which lead me to conclude that my original estimate 

 was very much below the mark. The post-mortem registrar 



