120 



ENTOZOA. 



bitter known to be inimical to the life of the 

 Entozoa. As the patient appeared to be in 

 perfect health, it was natural to suppose that 

 the other organs were free from hydatids, and 

 that a change of diet would have little or no 

 effect upon the solitary individual in the aque- 

 ous humour. Had she, on the contrary, pre- 

 sented a cachectic constitution, with pale com- 

 plexion, tumid belly, debility, and fever, none 

 of which symptoms were present, we should 

 have been led to suspect that what was visible 

 in the eye was but a sample of innumerable 

 hydatids in the internal parts of the body, and 

 might have recommended a change of diet, 

 with some hopes of success. In the course of six 

 weeks after I saw the patient, the cysticercus 

 having enlarged in size, the vessels of the con- 

 junctiva and sclerotica became turgid, the iris 

 changed in colour, and less free in its motions, 

 while the child complained much of pain in the 

 eye ; it was decided that the operation of ex- 

 traction should be attempted, and I owe to 

 Dr. Robertson of Edinburgh, who operated, the 

 communication of the following particulars. 

 The incision of the cornea was performed with- 

 out the slightest difficulty, but no persuasion 

 or threats could induce the child again to open 

 the eye ; she became perfectly unruly, and the 

 muscles compressed the eye-ball so powerfully 

 that the lens was forced out, and the hydatid 

 ruptured. The patient was put to bed in this 

 state. In the evening Dr. R. succeeded in 

 getting the girl to open the eyelids, when with 

 the forceps he extracted from the lips of the 

 incision the remains of the animal in shreds, 

 it being so delicate as scarcely to bear the 

 slightest touch. A portion of the iris remained 

 in the wound, which nothing would induce the 

 girl to allow Dr. R. to attempt to return. 



" After the eye healed, the cornea remained 

 clear, except at the cicatrice, where it was only 

 semitransparent; the pupil, in consequence of 

 adhesion to the cicatrice, was elliptical, and the 

 opaque capsule of the lens occupied the pu- 

 pillary aperture. The patient readily recog- 

 nized the presence of light." 



The Cysticercus cellulose occurs also in 

 quadrupeds, and is found most commonly and 

 in greatest abundance in the Hog, giving rise 

 to that state of the muscles which is called 

 " measly pork." 



Of the Cestoid Cider of Entozoa two species 

 belonging to different genera infest the Hu- 

 man Body. The Swiss and Russians are 

 troubled with the Bothriocephalus latus ; the 

 English, Dutch, and Germans with the Ttenta 

 solium: both kinds occur, but not simulta- 

 neously in the same individual, in the French. 

 It is not in our province to dwell upon the 

 medical remedies for these parasites, but we 

 may observe that the old vermifuge mentioned 

 by Celsus, viz. the bark of the pomegranate, is 

 equally efficacious and safer perhaps than the 

 oleum terebinthina commonly employed in 

 this country for the expulsion of the Tape-worm. 

 From the singular geographical distribution, 

 as it may be termed, of the above Cestoid 

 parasites, the Bothriocephalus latus rarely falls 

 under the observation of the English Entozoo- 



Fig. 62. 



legist. It may be readily distinguished from 

 the Tania solium by the form of the segments, 

 which are broader than they are long, and by 

 the position of the genital pores, which occur 

 in a series along the middle of one of the flat- 

 tened surfaces of the body, and not at the mar- 

 gin of each segment as in the Tania solium. 

 The head, which was for a long time a deside- 

 ratum in natural history, has at length been dis- 

 covered by Bremser. It is of an elongated form, 

 two-thirds of a line in length, and presents, in- 

 stead of the four round oscula 

 characteristic of the true Tania, 

 two lateral longitudinal fossa, 

 or bothria, (a a,^g.62, which 

 is a highly-magnified view of 

 the head of the Bothrioce- 

 phalus latus.) 



The Tania solium (Jig. 63) 

 attains the length of from four 

 to ten feet, and has been ob- 

 served to extend from the pylo- 

 rus to within seven inches of 

 the anus of the human intes- 

 tine.* Its breadth varies from 

 one-fourth of a line at its an- 

 terior part to three or four 

 lines towards the posterior part 

 of the body, which then again 

 diminishes. The head is small, 

 and generally hemispherical, 

 broader than long, and often 

 as if truncated anteriorly : the 



Fig 63. 



Head of Bothrio- 

 ceplialus latus 

 magnified. 



Tcenia solium, two-thirds natural size. 



* See Robin, in Jjurnal dc Medecine, torn. xxv. 

 (1766), p. 222. 



