FOOT (A. W.) — ON ENTOZOA. 215 



occasion ; and observes that, to the naturalist at least, it must appear 

 remarkable that there are mentioned as unclean, immediately after each 

 other, three animals — the pig, the hare, and the shaphan — which are 

 still universally known as bearers of Cysticerci.* The old commentators 

 agreed in translating the word shaphan, rabbit ; and though modern 

 writers are not unanimous as to the exact animal alluded to, all refer it 

 to some member of the Eodentia — a family particularly characterized 

 by harbouring Cysticerci. In a dietetic point of view the frequent in- 

 fection of rabbits with cystic worms is interesting to us. Though 

 many quadrumanous animals are highly prized as articles of food in 

 their native countries, in this land prejudice and motives of economy 

 forbid their consumption, so that we have not opportunities of studying 

 the development of the Cysticercus of the monkey in the human intes- 

 tine ; but it is well known that the flesh of the rabbit is a prolific 

 source of Tapeworm in men and dogs who consume many of these ani- 

 mals. "When properly roasted or boiled, however, it may be eaten with 

 impunity, the high heat to which the flesh is submitted destroying the 

 vitality of the embryos. 



Some of our domestic animals, as horses, oxen, and especially sheep, 

 are terribly plagued by the presence of an encysted worm belonging to 

 the genus Caenurus. The effects of this animal, the larval form of one 

 of the six species known to inhabit the dog, constitute the symptoms of 

 the disease variously called staggers, sturdy, turnsick, goggles, and ver- 

 tigo. The peculiar symptoms are due to pressure on the nervous matter 

 of the brain or spinal cord by the growth of this cystic worm, which 

 almost invariably selects the nervous centres as its nidus. The brain 

 hydatid, or brain bladders, as they are called by herds and butchers, 

 vary in size from a pea to a pigeon's egg, and are often much larger. 

 They contain countless microscopic Tapeworm heads, armed with hooks 

 and suckers, connected by narrow stalks to the common vesicle support- 

 ing the colony.f That the connexion between the Taenia canurus of 

 the dog and the brain hydatid of sheep is one of cause and consequence 

 has been proved by Kiichenmeister and others, who showed that the 

 administration to young lambs of the ripe segments of this Tapeworm, 

 derived from the dog, produced Caenuri, or brain hydatids, in the animal 

 fed with them, and in return the administration of the hydatids to dogs 

 produced the Tania ccenurus. The space of time is not long between 

 the introduction of ova into the sheep and the exhibition of their 

 effects. Dr. Haubner, Professor at the Veterinary School of Dresden, 

 fed several lambs with perfect joints of the Tapeworm of dogs on the 

 7th of January, and on the 20th the first appearances of the staggers 

 manifested themselves, j The extreme prevalence in Iceland of the 

 disease of staggers has long been known. The islanders keep large 

 quantities of sheep and horned cattle ; for every one hundred inhabit- 



* Op. cit., vol. ii., p. 13. f Cobbold, p. 117. J Von Siebold. 



