CESTODES 133 



Talhivist^"' has made oxIcMisivc studies of Ix)! liiioccplialns, whicli show 

 that the active hemolytic agent is contaiiuMl In the lii)oids of the 

 parasites, presumably as a cholesterol ester of oleic acid."*" The 

 j)roglottidcs contain a proteolytic enzyme, which apparently digests 

 the substance of dead segments, liberating the hemolytic lipoid, which 

 constitutes about ten per cent, of the solids of the parasite. There 

 is also a hemagglutinin, which, unlike the hemolytic substance, is ther- 

 molabile, and causes the appearance of an antibody in immunized 

 animals. In common with other parasites, antitryptic and antijieptic 

 effects are exhibited by extracts. 



Rosenqvist'" has studied the metabolism of twenty-one cases of 

 bothriocephalus anemia, and found evidence in nearly all of a toxo- 

 genic destruction of protein, which ceases promptly when the worms 

 are removed. He has found that these worms produce a poison which 

 is globulicidal, and probably also generally cytotoxic, since in the 

 anemias that they produce, the elimination of purine bodies of tissue 

 origin (endogenous purine) is increased. The nitrogenous metabolism 

 is quite the same in pernicious anemia and in ])othriocephalus anemia. 

 Isaac and v. d. Velden"' state that the blood of patients infected with 

 this parasite gives a predpitin reaction with autolytic fluid obtained 

 from bothriocephalus, and that rabbits immunized with such autolytic 

 fluids developed a precipitin. Complement fixation relictions may be 

 demonstrated in human infections with bothriocephalus or other 

 taenia (Jerlov).^^" 



Other Taenia. — There is much less evidence that other forms of tffuia produce 

 toxic substances which injure their host, although the clinical manifestations ob- 

 served in persons harboring tajnia are often of such a nature as to indicate strongly 

 an intoxication. Jammes and Mandoul*- found no toxic manifestations produced 

 by extracts of Tcenia saginata, which negative finding is supported by Cao,^' Tall- 

 qvist and Boycott," using various sorts of taenia. These results contradict the 

 earlier positive findings of Messineo and Calamida,^^ who found extracts of taenia 

 from dogs to be hemolytic, chemotactic (especiallj^ for eosinophiles), and to cause 

 local fatty degeneration in the liver. Extracts of T. perjoliata and plicata (of the 

 horse) were found highly toxic for guinea-pigs by Pomella,^' the liematopoietic 

 organs being greatly stimulated. Bedson" found that extracts of all sorts of 

 helminths produced similar effects on guinea-pigs, the chief lesions being in the 

 adrenals and thyroid. Possibly these differences in results are due to the fact 

 that different parasites were studied by different investigators; furthermore, tests 

 of toxicity of human parasites upon rabbits and guinea-pigs can haidly be con- 

 sidered conclusive. Le Dantec did not find a precipitin for T(snia saginata ex- 

 tracts in the blood of persons harboring this parasite, and negative results with 



« Zeit. klin. Med., 1907 (61), 427. 



*^ Faust and Tallqvist, Arch. exp. Path. u. Pliarm., 1907 (57), 307. 



^o Zeit. klin. Med., 1903 (49), 193. 



5> Dent. med. Woch., 1904 (30), 982. 



s'" Zeit. Immunitat., 1919 (28), 489. 



"Conipt. Rend. Acad. Sci., 1904 (138), 1734. 



" Riforma med., 1901 (3), 795. 



^ Jour. Pathol, and Bacteriol., 1905 (10), 383. 



« Cent. f. Bakt., 1901 (30), 346 and 374. 



« Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol., 1912 (73), 445. 



" Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1913 (27), 682. 



