78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



these worms, may thus scatter about, during a shigle year, 

 more than a thousand joints, and if each of these contains but 

 6000 eggs, he woukl thus diffuse 6,000,000 eggs, each con- 

 taining an active embryo, ready to leave its shell the moment 

 that it enters the stomach of a calf, cow, or ox. Young ani- 

 mals seem to be more liable to be infected by them than old 

 ones. Fortunately these young worms retain their vitality 

 for but one year when enclosed in the flesh, and after that 

 die and, withering away, leave only a very small yellowish 

 spot, containing calcareous particles. The adult worm, if 

 left undisturbed, will live in a person ten or twelve years, 

 constantly dropping its joints. Among the Burates, or Cos- 

 sacks of ihe Baikal region, this species is very abundant. 

 Their habits of eating chiefly the raw or slightly cooked flesh 

 of cattle, sheep, camels, horses, and goats, while they devour 

 the liver, kidneys, and fat quite raw, would lead us to expect 

 that this and other parasites might abound in their bodies, 

 which proves to be the case. According to Dr. Kaschin in 130 

 post mortem examinations only two bodies were found with 

 out this tape-worm, and among 600 hospital patients every 

 one liad it. Sometimes as many as fifteen specimens were 

 found in one person. 



It has been supposed until within a short time that the 

 beef tape-worm (^Tcenia mediocanellata) was very rare in 

 Great Britain and the United States, where the pork tape- 

 worm was tliought to be the only one that was at all common 

 in man. Dr. Cobbold has shown, however, in his late Avorks 

 on parasitic worms, that the beef tape-worm is really quite as 

 common in England as the pork tape worm, the wealthier 

 classes generally harboring the former, and the poorer people 

 the latter. I am convinced that, even if not so common as 

 the pork tape- worm, the beef tape-worm is by no means so 

 rare in America as is generally supposed. The Museum of 

 Yale College possesses one large specimen, raised by a citizen 

 of New Haven, and many other museums in the United States 

 no doubt contain them, labelled, however, " Toenia solium.''^ In 

 fact, probably not one physician in a thousand, in the country 

 at large, possesses the knov^ledge of the subject requisite for 



