TAPEWORMS. I 5 



pool, requested advice on the 19th of October 1870. 

 He had been the victim of tapeworm for the last 

 four years. His nervous system had been much 

 injured, rendering the movements of his limbs irre- 

 gular and uncertain. He was still subject to twitch- 

 ings, accompanied with tingling sensations at the 

 tips of the fingers ; and he not unfrequently cut 

 himself whilst in the act of shaving. Under the 

 care of several medical advisers he had, at different 

 times, taken male-fern, kousso, turpentine, pumpkin- 

 seeds, and other remedies ; and only some three 

 weeks previous to the date of his present visit he 

 had passed a tapeworm, estimated to have been five 

 yards in length. Under these circumstances I pre- 

 scribed a tonic, but counselled caution and delay as 

 to the employment of any more vermifuges, deeming 

 it highly probable that there would be no return of 

 the parasite. 



I have an especial pleasure in recording this case 

 because (apart from any actual examination of the 

 entozoon) the facts that were at the time brought 

 under my notice afforded evidence of the clearest 

 possible description that this patient had, during 

 the invasion of an ordinary species of tapeworm, 

 been infested by the so-called cucumerine tape- 

 worm. The explicit statements of one of this 

 gentleman's professional attendants as to the cha- 

 racters presented by certain small tapeworms which 

 after treatment were passed, along with portions of 



