1862.] DR. T. S. COBBOLD ON HUMAN ENTOZOA. 311 



endemic known as the Echinococcus-disease of Iceland, the best 

 account of which we owe to the researches of Eschricht. 



My friend Dr. Arthur Leared, M.R.C.P., who has just returned 

 from a short tour in Iceland, has undertaken to draw up a report on 

 the present state of our knowledge on this subject (with a view to its 

 being ultimately laid before the Icelandic Parliament) ; and he has 

 ingeniously suggested that every dog should be efficiently physicked 

 at a certain given time, and that all the excreta, tapeworms included, 

 should be buried at a considerable depth in the soil. The experi- 

 ment should be extended over several seasons. The mature TcBnice 

 thus destroyed would, it is conceived, cut off the supply of embryos 

 and Echinococci, and the endemic might thus be averted. To this 

 suggestion I would add that, in place of burying the excreta, they 

 should, in all cases, be burnt. If this latter suggestion be not carried 

 out, it is more than probable that multitudes of the minute embryos 

 will escape destruction, and ultimately find their way into the 

 human body. I have previously urged this preventive measure with 

 the view of lessening the prevalence of other entozoa, both of man 

 and animals ; and I again, in a social point of view, respectfully invite 

 attention to the importance of this rule. All entozoa (not preserved 

 for scientific investigation and experiment) should be thoroughly 

 destroyed by fire when practicable, and under no circumstances 

 should they be thrown aside as harmless refuse. In the case of 

 Tcenia echinococcus the greatest difficulty likely to be experienced 

 lies in the circumstance of the extreme minuteness of the strobila, 

 which, in the full-grown state, does not exceed the eighth of an inch 

 in length. It is almost certain to be overlooked ; and I fear, there- 

 fore, the treatment suggested by Dr. Leared will only be attended 

 with partially beneficial results. As an additional security, I 

 would recomm.end that boiling-hot water be thrown over the floor 

 of the kennels or enclosures where the dogs subjected to Dr. 

 Leared' s treatment are kept. In this way nearly all the embryos 

 would be destroyed. In regard to the structure of Echinococcus 

 itself, very little now remains to be made out. The literature of the 

 subject is of very great extent. One of the best memoirs extant is 

 that communicated by Prof. Huxley to this Society ; and, from 

 repeated original investigations, I have been enabled to follow out 

 and satisfy myself as to the accuracy of most of the facts therein 

 recorded. I have sought, however, very diligently for the internal 

 cilia described by Huxley, Virchow, and Lebert, hitherto without 

 success. Respecting the well-known hydatids or acephalocysts, the 

 majority of them are clearly undeveloped larvae of Tcenia echinococcus, 

 comparatively few of them being referable to other Tapeworms*. 



* Since the above was ■written, an instance of Echinococcus-disease in a young 

 female has very opportunely come under my notice at the Middlesex Hospital ; 

 this case, unhappily, terminated fatally. On Sept. 30, 1 secured, and fed a house- 

 dog with, several hundreds of heads of the scoleces, which, in all respects, corre- 

 sponded with those of Echinococcus veterinorum, and I hope to be able to extend 

 this experiment after the production of the Tcenice. (This experiment only gave 

 a negative result — probably on account of the cysts having been accidentally 

 steeped in a solution of carbonic acid before"! received them. — T. S. C. : Jaiu 1863.) 



