FOOT (A. W.) — ON ENTOZOA. 205 



of the Bothriocephalic latus of man (for, except in the case of 

 the red mullet, where some of the intestines are considered a delicacy, 

 ■we are not in the habit of eating; the parts of fish in which the larval 

 form of the worm dwells) ; they account for its discovery on one occa- 

 sion by Creplin in the cat, which eats with relish the refuse of fish.* 

 The Polar Bear in the Zoological Gardens has been in the habit of 

 getting, among other food, three pounds offish, generally conger eel, every 

 day for several years; and we may be allowed to conjecture that 

 it is from this source he has derived the semi- developed animal 

 which in his interior became matured into a full grown Bothrioce- 

 phalus. There are other animals in the Gardens, as the Seal, fed with 

 the flesh of the conger eel ; but it does not follow that the embryos must 

 be in tbem developed into broad Tapeworms ; for every species thrives 

 and undergoes its metamorphoses only in a particular and appropriate 

 species of animal, as in the case of the encysted worm, Cysticercus pisi- 

 formis, found in the liver and peritoneum of hares : if it be eaten by 

 a dog, it will be developed into the Tarnia serrata ; if it be eaten by 

 a gamekeeper or poacher, it will be developed into the Tcenia solium ; 

 if it be eaten by a cat, there will be no jointed Tapeworm developed at 

 all — the Cysticercus will die in a short time. 



Perhaps it is on account of his northern origin that this develop- 

 ment has taken place in the Polar Bear. He comes from latitudes where 

 the broad Tapeworm is common, and the narrow Tapeworm rare, as far 

 as man is concerned. There may be something in his organization, in 

 virtue of his Arctic parentage, to account for the fact, that the fish of 

 the British seas, containing, as some of them do, elements capable of 

 being developed into broad Tapeworm, can originate in him a Bothrio- 

 cephalus; but cannot — or very rarely do so — in the British ani- 

 mals, as cats, for instance, which feed on the same fish in these 

 latitudes. This Polar Bear has been six years in the possession of the 

 Zoological Society ; and it may be said that he brought the worm with 

 him from his northern home, for these animals are remarkably fond of 

 fish, and especially of salmon, in which an embryo, capable of being 

 developed into a broad Tapeworm, resides ; and so active in the water 

 are these Bears, that they have been seen to catch a salmon in its own 

 element ; yet men and lower animals eating salmon freely in Great Bri- 

 tain do not get broad Tapeworm. The Russians are particularly fond of 

 eating raw salmon, which they wash down with a " botka," or measure 

 of brandy, no doubt with the view of counteracting the unpleasant 

 effects such food may give rise to. The President of this Society has, 

 when travelling in that country, eaten as much as half a pound of un- 

 cooked salmon. Dr. Huss, of Sweden, attributes the frequency of Both- 

 riocephalus latus on part of the Lapland frontiers, in Finland, and on 

 the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, to the use of salmon. 



It is very remarkable, in connexion with the aquatic nature of the 



Kuchenmeister, op. cit. p. 103. 



