A CASE OF INFESTATION WITH DIPYLIDIUM CANINUM i 



By Maria Paz Mendoza-Guazon 



(From the Department of Pathology and Bacteriology, College of Medicine 

 and Surgery, University of the Philippines) 



THREE TEXT FIGURES 



It has been my good fortune to find at the autopsy table 

 four chains composed of melon-seedlike tapeworm segments in 

 the small intestine of a male child. 



A brief summary of the history is as follows: 



Jose Abad, 8 months old, born in Pila, Laguna Province, re- 

 siding at Binondo, Manila, was admitted in the department of 

 pediatrics, Philippine General Hospital, on August 21, 1915, on 

 account of enlargement of the abdomen. He is the seventh child 

 of the family and the delivery was normal, although the child 

 had a rather prominent abdomen and was entirely breast-fed. 



The present illness has been present since birth. The ab- 

 domen was always distended and tympanitic and always re- 

 tained the enlarged size. The mother, to relieve her child, used 

 to give him an enema of some herb decoction, and after the 

 expulsion of the faecal matter and a good amount of gas, the 

 abdomen would decrease in size and become soft. The child has 

 always been constipated and did not thrive well, although the 

 mother had sufficient milk. 



The physical examination showed an underdeveloped and 

 poorly nourished infant with open anterior fontanelle, large 

 mouth due to the habit of sucking the fingers and hands, and 

 large, distended tympanitic abdomen without muscular rigidity 

 or spasm and showing the coils of the large intestine. The peris- 

 taltic waves could not be induced by application of cold. No 

 one in the family has the same trouble as this boy.. 



Stool examination : Negative. 



Urine examination: Reaction, acid; sugar, negative; albu- 

 men, a decided trace. The microscopic examination showed 

 numerous crystals of acid sodium phosphate, epithelial cells, and 

 some mucus. 



Table I. — Examination of the blood. 



Hemoglobin 80 per cent. 



Leucocytes ^ 8,875 



Polynuclears 76 per cent. 



Small lymphocytes 23 per cent. 



Transitionals 1 per cent. 



' Received for publication January 18, 1916. 



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