T^NIA ECHINOCOCCUS. 287 



present, almost the sixth part of all the inhabitants annually dying 

 in Iceland, fall victims to the echinococcus epidemic. It is true, 

 that nowhere else, probably, are the conditions for the develop- 

 ment or, rather, the transportation of the echinococci, so favour- 

 able as in that country. As the dog is of far greater importance 

 to the Icelander than it is to us, the animal is, consequently, 

 much more generally kept. Another circumstance, also, must be 

 held to weigh very heavily, namely, that almost everybody in Ice- 

 land keeps his own stock of cattle, and lives, during the long 

 winter nights, with the entire living stock, usually huddled together 

 in a very small space. Moreover, that cleanliness which we know 

 to be one of the most important preservatives against infection, is 

 but too often wanting in those parts." (Jahrb. loc. cit., s. 654.) 



Similar prophylactic measures were long ago insisted on by 

 Kiichenmeister, but as his sentiments were expressed in a tedi- 

 ous and diffuse style, so characteristic of his writings, they did not, 

 perhaps, receive that consideration to which they were undoubtedly 

 otherwise entitled. In effect, he says that the principal thing to 

 be done consists in the destruction of the echinococcus vesicles, 

 combined with the expulsion and annihilation of the Taenia from the 

 dog. In order to carry out this latter point, it was subsequently sug- 

 gested by Dr. Leared that every dog should be efficiently physicked 

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

 cluded, should be buried at a considerable depth in the soil. The 

 experiment should be extended over several seasons. The mature 

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

 embryos and Echinococci, and the endemic might thus be averted. 

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

 should, in all cases, he burnt. If this latter suggestion be not car- 

 ried out, it is more than probable that multitudes of the mmute 

 embryos will escape destruction, and ultimately find their way into 

 the human body. I have previously urged this preventive mea- 

 sure (in my paper "on the Sclerostoma causing the gape-disease of 

 fowls," published in the " Proceedings of the Linnean Society" for 



