OCCURRENCE OF CESTODA 



79 



exceedingly prevalent also in the East, and indeed cosmopolitan, 

 occurring wherever the infected flesh of the ox is eaten in a raw 

 or half-cooked state. Its attacks 

 are fortunately not usually 

 severe. Taenia solium Eud. 

 (the pork tape-worm) is found 

 wherever the pig is kept as a 

 domestic animal, and has con- 

 sequently a world-wide distri- 

 bution. Its size (6-9 feet long) 

 and powers of adhesion would 

 alone render T. solium a for- 

 midable parasite. But the 

 danger of its presence in the 

 body of man, or in the flesh of 

 pigs, lies in the fact that the 

 larva or bladder-worm (known 

 as Cysticercus cellulosae) can live 

 in the most varied organs. Thus 

 if by accident a mature pro- 

 glottis be eaten, the embryos 

 escape, bore their way into the 

 wall of the stomach, and enter- 

 ing the portal vein, may reach 

 in time the muscles, the brain, 

 the eye, or even the heart itself, 

 and attain the cystic condition. 

 Even more disastrous may be 

 the result, should some ripe 

 joints of a mature worm work 

 their way from the intestine 

 back towards the stomach. 

 Should this happen (and though 

 it has not been directly proved, 



Fio. 39. A, Taenia saginato, Goeze. Nat. 

 size. (From a specimen in the Cam- 

 bridge Museum.) The approximate 

 lengths of the portions omitted iu the 

 drawing are given. At * (after Leuck- 

 art) the branched uterus and the longi- 

 tudinal and transverse excretory vessels 

 are shown. The genital apertures are 

 seen as a lateral opening on each of the 

 larger proglottides. B, Head (scolex) 

 of T. solium. Rud. x 12. (After 

 Leuckart.) 



the possibility is to be reckoned 

 with), the result would be the 

 release of vast numbers of em- 

 bryos capable of inflicting fatal 

 injury on the host. An abnor- 

 mal Cysticercus of this species is probably the Taenia (Cysti- 



