TAPEWORMS. 71 



cestode parasites. How long they may remain so is 

 quite another question. Young children, when they 

 become infested, do not suffer so much from 

 tapeworm as from either oxyurides or lumbrici; 

 but they ought not, on that account, to be allowed 

 to go about year by year as tapeworm bearers. 

 I mention this for reasons quite apart from the 

 possibly injurious effects ultimately accruing to 

 themselves. The following case is one of the kind 

 alluded to : 



CASE XXXVIJL C. B., from Brighton, is a 

 young gentleman only six years of age ; neverthe- 

 less, during fully one-half of this short period of 

 his life, reckoning up to the 24th of April 1871, he 

 has enjoyed the unenviable privilege of playing the 

 part of host to a tapeworm. At least, I was so in- 

 formed by the lady who brought him to receive my 

 opinion. It is true, there were no particular symp- 

 toms likely to produce alarm on his behalf; yet 

 there was the customary loss of tone, excessive 

 pallor, feeble pulse, and indifferent appetite. Al- 

 though there was no chance of my watching the 

 results of any treatment I might propose, I consi- 

 dered it my duty to prescribe an anthelmintic. I 

 ordered areca-nut powders in two drachm doses, to 

 be repeated, with an aperient, every two hours until 

 its action had proved effective. These produced no 

 immediate result, but towards the end of the fol- 

 lowing month he passed the tapeworm, which I was 



