TAPEWORMS. 73 



that its earliest efforts as a flesh-feeder, at the age 

 of fourteen months, had unluckily secured for it the 

 privilege of becoming a parasite-bearer. In this 

 respect, therefore, the case is singularly instructive, 

 if not altogether unique. 



Once more permit me to insist upon the desi- 

 rability of exercising great caution, not only in 

 accepting the statements of others concerning the 

 presence of tapeworm, but also in respect of the 

 propriety of at once adopting active measures of 

 treatment. Apart from the actual demonstration 

 of the existence of any parasite, the mere symptoms 

 themselves are very likely to deceive. We should 

 be prepared to encounter all sorts of complications ; 

 sometimes looking for indications of previous disor- 

 ders, parasitic or otherwise, as the case may be, when 

 the patients themselves are all the while attributing 

 their ailments to an ever-present or persistent ento- 

 zoon. Some of the cases previously advanced will 

 have afforded a sufficient illustration of my meaning, 

 but in this particular relation I will select two 

 others, each of them presenting features more or 

 less worthy of attention : 



CASE XL. H. M., a young lady, twenty-three 

 years of age, visited me on the 1st of October, 1869, 

 and desired that I would treat her for tapeworm, 

 from the presence of which she believed herself to 

 be suffering. Fortunately, a friend who accompanied 

 her had brought portions of the alleged parasite in 



