236 THE TAPEWORMS 



Damage to Host. — The amount of damage which adult 

 tapeworms do to their hosts is a much disputed question. There 

 are those who beheve that the presence of an adult tapeworm is 

 more or less of a joke and as such is to be gotten out of the sys- 

 tem but not to be taken seriously. The experience of physicians 

 who have had wide dealings with tapeworms does not ordinarily 

 bear out this idea. The mere mechanical obstruction of the 

 intestine which a large tapeworm may cause must be consider- 

 able. The amount of food taken from the host for nourishment 

 of such a worm might well be compared with the food absorbed 

 by a growing embryo, and it usually produces a ravenous appetite. 

 The injury to the wall of the intestine caused by the adhesion 

 of the worm by its suckers and hooks is often the cause of serious 

 conditions, allowing the entrance of bacteria and sometimes 

 resulting in destructive ulceration. The waste products and 

 other toxic substances given off by tapeworms must be very con- 

 siderable and their poisonous properties cannot be doubted. 

 Only recently there came before the notice of the author a case 

 of tapeworm infection illustrating the toxic effect of the worms. 

 A patient came to a local physician for treatment, thinking he 

 had tuberculosis and having been so diagnosed by another doc- 

 tor. He was in an extremely anemic condition and was very 

 weak and easily exhausted. His cheeks were sunken, his eye 

 staring and he was subject to occasional mental disturbances. 

 Within a fortnight after the worm had been expelled he was prac- 

 tically a new man although he had been suffering for over a year. 



Abdominal pains, anal itching, disordered appetite and di- 

 gestion, emaciation, anemia and many types of nervous derange- 

 ments, as giddiness, partial paralysis, false sensations and epilep- 

 tic fits, are common symptoms of tapeworm infection. The 

 degree to which each of these symptoms is felt varies remarkably 

 in different individuals. The nervous symptoms are all due to 

 intoxicating substances liberated by the worms. Sometimes 

 a partial immunity to the toxic effects of worms is acquired by 

 infected people, and in such cases the worms may be present 

 unnoticed for years. 



The damage done by bladderworm stages of tapeworms is 

 often more serious, especially in the case of hydatids, the large 

 multiple bladderworms of Echinococcus granulosus. The bladder- 

 worms which occur in man most commonly develop in the lung 



