INJURIES CAUSED BY TAPE -WORMS. 



157 



The common human tape-worm, Tania solium Linn., 

 varies from ten to thirty feet in length ; there are upward 

 of eight hundred joints in a worm ten feet long. The head 

 ends in a rostellum or proboscis armed with a double crown 

 of hooks ; the first proglottis or sexually mature segment 

 begins at the 450th. While in some persons the presence 

 of a tape-worm is simply an annoyance, in nervous and irri- 

 table persons it causes restlessness, undue anxiety, and vari- 

 ous dyspeptic symptoms. In rare cases (over a hundred are 

 known) death has resulted from the presence of the Cysticer- 



mg. i05.-c_ 



eercus^ or larval 

 Tape-worm. 



■Pig. 106.— Hea<l of Tania aeanthotrlas (Cysticercna) 

 enlarged, showing the suckers (*S) and circle of hooks. 



cus in the brain. " Cysticerci may develop themselves in 

 almost any situation in the human body, but they occur 

 most frequently in the subcutaneous, areolar, and intermus- 

 cular connective tissue ; next, most commonly in the brain 

 and eye ; and, lastly, in the substance of the heart and other 

 viscera of the trunk " (Cobbold). Among the preventive rem- 

 edies against tape-worms is the disuse of raw or underdone 

 pork, and " measly" pork — i.e., the flesh of swine contain- 

 ing the little bladder-like vesicles. Cysticerci, or larval tape- 

 worms, can be readily distinguislied, but when thoroughly 

 cooked are harmless, as the temperature of boiling water is 



