56 VAltlOUS FORMS OF TAPEWORMS. 



nothing to prevent it, when prevention lies easily in our 

 power. 



Should a human being eat the diseased brain, cyst and all, no 

 further development would take place, but he does not do so. 

 What generally happens^ The dead animal or head of the 

 "pothery" or "sturdy" sheep is invariably thrown into the 

 nearest wood or spinney or given to the shepherd's dog. What 

 is the result 1 The cyst, being only capable of development in 

 one of the Canida; produces numbers of the tapeworm, l\i;nia 

 c(i;iiarut<, in the dog's intestines, and so the disease is propa- 

 gated ; whilst if the diseased heads were destroyed or given to 

 fowls, in which the soolices, I find, never develop, all that per- 

 sistent loss would be saved. The cysts are often found in the 

 lumbar region of the spinal cord, where they may reach a great 

 size, and produce the so-called " lumbar-gid " — the hindquarters 

 becoming paralysed. The only treatment is trephining, but it 

 is seldom done, and it is far better to kill the parasitised 

 animal. 



Taniia .•<oJiiiin= Ci/.^ficerms celhiJosw 

 (the Human Tapeworm and ?ileasles in pigs). 



Td-uia solium is a tapeworm found in man, in some parts of 

 Europe in great abundance, but comparatively rarely now in 

 England. It is creamy white in colour, and reaches from six 

 to ten feet in length, often being composed of as many as eight 

 hundred segments : the scolex is provided with a large circle of 

 hooks. The ripe segments become pinched off several together 

 and are passed out, when they may find their way on to some 

 dung-heap. If a pig happens to come across them they are 

 speedily eaten, and hundreds of the contained ova are dehisced 

 into the stomach, and give rise to the typical six-hooked cestode 

 embryos. These enter the vascular system in swarms and take 

 up their abode in tlic muscles, or rather in the connective tissue 

 between them. .Sometimes they even reach the brain and spinal 

 cord, and may also be found in adipose or fat tissue. These 



