160 ENTOZOA FOUND IN MAN. 



When tliese cysts have attained to sufficient 

 magnitude, they can be felt through the abdominal 

 parietes ; they might then be mistaken for cancerous 

 tumours, or for enlarged mesenteric glands, but, 

 unlike these, they do not, for a long period, occasion 

 either pain, functional derangements, or constitu- 

 tional disturbance. 



If they do not eventually, either through an 

 accidental complication or as a result of their position, 

 give rise to an acute and mortal affection of some 

 adjacent organ, they always terminate by the produc- 

 tion of such serious functional disorder that the 

 patient becomes emaciated, falls into a decline, and 

 dies. 



Hydatid cysts of the liver, or of the other 

 abdominal viscera, not infrequently open into the 

 neighbouring serous or mucous cavities, in consequence 

 either of external violence, or of some excessive effort 

 on the part of the patient, or of great distension of 

 the cyst. 



When an hydatid cyst opens into a large serous 

 cavity, the immediate inflammation which follows 

 progresses very rapidly, and always leads to the 

 death of the patient. This accident has been known 

 to destroy hfe in a few hours, whilst, in other cases, 

 death did not occur for several days ; the difference 

 in the course of the affection may be accounted for 

 by the relative size of the perforation, and the quan- 

 tity and nature of the fluid which is effused. 



The sudden subsidence of an abdominal tumour, 

 sometimes preceded or accompanied by a sensation 

 of internal rupture, the comcidence of violent pain, 

 and the signs of peritonitis or of pleurisy, would 



