TAENIA ECHTNOCOCCTTS. 2(S1 



Excluding the remarkable case of (Esterlen, reported in the 

 " Medico-Chirurgical Review" (where an extraordinary enlargement 

 of the kidneys took place in a foetus from the development of hydatids 

 within their substance), the above, with one or two exceptions, 

 comprise all the interesting cases I have met with where those 

 singular formations occupied either the viscera or external soft 

 parts of the human body. (I am speaking, of course, more parti- 

 cularly with reference to our home periodical literature.) There 

 remain, however, four other cases, of especial interest from the cir- 

 cumstance of their occurring in connection with the osseous sys- 

 tem. One of these, no doubt, originated independently of the bone. 

 I allude to the case operated upon by Sir Benjamin Brodie, in 

 which the hydatid cyst was situated in the region of the scapula ; 

 but I mention it, in this place, because a very similar case occurred 

 to M. Roux at La Oharite (1826) with the following curious fea- 

 tures : — The tumour was supposed to be a large abscess, but after 

 making an incision, M. Roux discovered that he had encountered 

 an hourglass-shaped hydatid cyst, the constricted portion of the 

 tumour being surrounded by the circular border of a round hole 

 existing in the scapula ("Lond. Med. Repos.," p. 187). 



Lastly, in regard to genuine bone cases, it cannot but be looked 

 upon as rather singular, that, in the instances which I have here 

 collected, the hydatids, with one solitary exception, occupied 

 the shaft of the tibia. These English cases (including one Ameri- 

 can) are seven in number, and may be referred to under the names 

 of William Hunter (Museum specimen), Astley Cooper, Webster, 

 Wickham, Coulson, Lambert, and H. Thompson. The first five of 

 these are included in M. Davaine's list of six cases ; so that only 

 one similar example has apparently been met with in France.* 

 When Coulson' s comparatively recent case was first reported, the 

 example was regarded as unique ; but it now turns out that the 

 occurrence of hydatids within the tibia is much more common than 



* It is by Cullerier. See Davaine, 1. c. p. 552 ; also " Journ. de Med. Ohir. et Pharm." 

 de Corvisart, etc., vol. xii., p. 125. 



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