202 NATTTKAL HISTORY SOCIETr OP DUBLIN. 



case exceptional to the gradual increase in lateral width of these "worms 

 in the recently described Bothriocephalus cordatus, which is figured in 

 Cobbold's fine work on " Entozoa." In this worm the increase in 

 width is so rapid, that the anterior end of the body becomes lancet- 

 shaped, and only about fifty joints are immature.* 



These twenty- five inches of parasite form a portion of the strobila of 

 some variety of the broad Tapeworm, strobila being the name given by 

 Vau Beneden to the entire collective series of segments, mature and im- 

 mature, which form the jointed compound body in this class of ani- 

 mals. Beside it there has been put, for the sake of contrast, seventy-two 

 inches of the narrow Tapeworm passed by one of the Dublin city 

 police after the administration of castor-oil and turpentine. 



The occurrence of the broad Tapeworm in the Polar Bear suggests 

 the interesting inquiry, are the animals of Northern Europe as subject 

 to this parasite as we know the human inhabitants are ; and will locality 

 enable us to predict the existence of this worm in animals, as it will in 

 men? 



All the parasites known familiarly by the name of Tapeworms were 

 grouped by Budolphi under the name of Cestoidea, from their flattened 

 band-like appearance. 250 distinct forms of cestoid worms have been 

 ribed ; and Cobbold, assuming that we may rely upon at least 200 

 genuine species, has proposed the division of Budolphi's group Ces- 

 toidea into families : — 



{Taeniadae (Earn, i.) ; 



Bothriocephalidae (Earn, ii.) ; 

 Tetrarhyncidse (Earn, iii.); 



a classification which is recommended as much by its simplicity as its uti- 

 lity. To the first family — the Taeniadae — the specimen from the human 

 subject belongs ; to the second family — the Bothriocephalidae — the spe- 

 cimen from the Polar Bear belongs. The Bothriocephali being no longer 

 regarded as species of the Taeniae, but a distinct family, the old Linnaean 

 title of Tcenia lata, adopted to indicate the broad Tapeworm as distinct 

 from the narrow one, is falling into disuse, being supplanted by the 

 name Bothriocephalus, derived from the very peculiar pits or grooves 

 near the head, which constitute an anatomical distinction between 

 the two families. 



The Bothriocephalus lotus of man, first correctly described by Brem- 

 ser,f is not only confined to the inhabitants of Europe, but is even li- 

 mited to certain parts of that Continent. Eoremost among these, ac- 

 cording to Leuckart, are the Cantons of "West Switzerland, with the 

 adjacent Erench districts. In Geneva, according to Odier, almost a 

 fourth part of all the inhabitants suffer from Bothriocephahcs lotus. It 

 is also common in the north-west and north provinces of Bussia, Sweden, 



* Cobbold, op. cit., p. 299. f Kuchenmeister, op. cit., p. 96. 



