ENTOZOA. 



119 



bits a portion of muscle thus infested; a the 

 adventitious cyst laid open, exposing the Hy- 

 datid ; a' the adventitious cyst elongated by the 

 extension of the head and neck of the inclosed 

 hydatid b in the direction of the muscular fibres. 

 The cysticercus itself sometimes attains the size 

 exhibited in Jig. 60, in which a indicates the 



Fig. 60. 



Fig. 61, 



Cysticercus 

 celltdosee. 



Magnified head of Cysticerus celluloses. 



head, b the neck or body, and c the dilated 

 vesicular tail. Fig. 61 exhibits the head 

 sufficiently magnified to show the uncinated 

 rostellum or proboscis d for irritation and 

 adhesion, and the suctorious discs e e for im- 

 bibing the surrounding nutriment. 



The occurrence of this Entozoon in the Hu- 

 man Subject appears to be less common in this 

 country than on the Continent. In the course 

 of five years we have become acquainted with 

 only two cases, one in a subject at the Dis- 

 secting-Rooms of St. Bartholomew's, the other 

 in a subject at the Webb-street School of Ana- 

 tomy. Rudolphi relates that out of two hun- 

 dred and fifty bodies dissected annually at the 

 Anatomical School of Berlin, from four to five 

 were found through nine consecutive years to 

 be infested more or less copiously with the 

 Cysticercus cellulose; for the most part the 

 subjects had been of the leucophlegmatic 

 temperament, but not affected with ascites or 

 anasarca. The muscles most obnoxious to 

 the Entozoon in question are the glutoei, psoas, 

 iliacus internus, and the extensors of the thigh; 

 they have been found also in the muscular 

 tissue of the heart, and in parts not muscular, 

 as the brain and eye. Soemmering detected 

 one specimen of the Cysticercus cellulosa 

 in the anterior chamber of the eye of a young 

 woman set. 18.* The following is a more re- 

 cent account of a specimen which was deve- 

 loped in the anterior chamber of the eye of a 

 patient in the Glasgow Ophthalmic Infirmary. 



" Case. From the month of August, 1832, 

 till about the middle of January, 1833, when 

 she was first brought to Mr. Logan, the child 

 had suffered repeated attacks of inflammation 

 in the left eye. Mr. L. found the cornea so 

 nebulous, and the ophthalmia so severe, that he 

 dreaded a total loss of sight. He treated the 

 case as one of scrofulous ophthalmia; and after 

 the use of alterative medicines, and the appli- 

 cation of a blister behind the ear, the inflam- 



* See Isis, 1830, p. 717, as quoted by Nord- 

 niann, Mikrographis^he Beitrace zurNatureescLicte 

 der wirbellosen thiere. 



matory symptoms subsided, leaving, however, 

 a slight opacity of the lower part of the cornea. 

 After a week, the child was again brought to 

 Mr. L., who, on examining the eye, disco- 

 vered, to his great surprise, a semitransparent 

 body, of about two lines in diameter, floating 

 unattached in the anterior chamber. This 

 body appeared almost perfectly spherical, ex- 

 cept that there proceeded from its lower edge 

 a slender process, of a white colour, with a 

 slightly bulbous extremity, not unlike the pro- 

 boscis of a common fly. This process Mr. L. 

 observed to be of greater specific gravity than 

 the spherical or cystic portion, so that it always 

 turned into the most depending position. He 

 also remarked that it was projected or elongated 

 from time to time, and again retracted, so as 

 to be completely hid within the cystic portion ; 

 while this, in its turn, assumed various changes 

 of form, explicable only on the supposition of 

 the whole constituting a living hydatid. 



" On the 3d April, when I examined the case, 

 I found the cornea slightly nebulous, the eye 

 free from inflammation and pain, and the ap- 

 pearances and movements of the animal exactly 

 such as described by Mr. Logan. When the 

 patient kept her head at rest, as she sat before 

 me, in a moderate light, the animal covered 

 the two lower thirds of the pupil. Watching 

 it carefully, its cystic portion was seen to be- 

 come more or less spherical, and then to assume 

 a flattened form, while its head I saw at one 

 moment thrust suddenly down to the bottom 

 of the anterior chamber, and at the next drawn 

 up so completely as scarcely to be visible. Mr. 

 Meikle turned *the child's head gently back, 

 and instantly the hydatid revolved through the 

 aqueous humour, so that the head fell to the 

 upper edge of the cornea, now become the 

 more depending part. On the child again 

 leaning forwards, it settled like a little balloon 

 in its former position, preventing the patient 

 from seeing objects directly before her, or 

 below the level of the eye, but permitting the 

 vision of such as were placed above. Mr. 

 Logan had observed no increase of size in the 

 animal while it was under his inspection. Mr. 

 Meikle had watched it carefully for three weeks 

 without observing any other change than a 

 slight increase in the opacity of the cystic 

 portion. 



" To every one who had seen or heard of Mr. 

 Logan's case, the question naturally occurred, 

 Ought not this animal to be removed from the 

 eye ? Mr. Logan and Mr. Meikle appeared to 

 have deferred employing any means for destroy- 

 ing or removing it ; first, because it seemed to 

 be producing no mischief: and, secondly, be- 

 cause there was a probability that it was a 

 short-lived animal, and likely therefore speedily 

 to perish and shrink away, so as to give no 

 greater irritation than a shred of lenticular 

 capsule. Various means naturally suggested 

 themselves for killing the animal, such as 

 passing electric or galvanic shocks through the 

 eye, rubbing in oil of turpentine round the 

 orbital region, giving this medicine internally 

 in small doses, or putting the child on a course 

 of sulphate of quiua, or some other vegetable 



