230 ENTOZOA. 



There are other dangers, however, in store for us, even suppos- 

 ing we avoid the tapeworm-chances above mentioned. These 

 have reference to the harbouring of the six-hooked embryos which, 

 when they have gained access to our own bodies, wUl, as I have 

 previously shown, develop into measles. Our flesh, like pork, thus 

 becomes measled, although certainly not to the spawn-like extent 

 so often seen in the lower animals. A single measle alone, unfor- 

 tunately, is suflGLcient to prove fatal, and this ugly contingency, more- 

 over, is one which we can never be absolutely certain of avoiding. 

 We become the "host" or bearer of the measle by swallowing the 

 fully-developed eggs of the Tcenia solium. This we may do directly by 

 handling fresh tapeworms, whose almost invisible eggs, by conceal- 

 ment under our nails or in our clothing, may subsequently drop upon 

 or may be brushed into our food, and when swallowed, develop 

 within us accordingly. Even a thorough washing of the hands will 

 not render us absolutely secure from invasion — I mean those of us, 

 especially, who devote ourselves to the experimental investigation 

 of helminthological science. In like manner, our neighbours who 

 complacently devour choice salads made from the stores of the 

 market-gardener, also run a certain amount of risk, not only as 

 regards this entozoon, but, indeed, as respects several others. The 

 appropriate vegetables may be manured with night-soil containing 

 myriads of tapeworm eggs, or they may be watered with fluid filth, 

 and other abomination into which these eggs have been cast by 

 variously possible ways. In such cases, one or more tapeworm ova 

 may be transferred to our digestive organs, unless the vegetables 

 are careftdly cleaned before they appear on the table. In the same 

 way, one perceives how fallen fruits, all sorts of edible plants, as 

 well as pond, canal, and even river water procured from the neigh- 

 bourhood of human habitations, are liable to harbour the embryos 

 capable of gaining an entrance to our bodies. It thus becomes evident 

 also how one individual suffering from tapeworm may infect a whole 

 neighbourhood, rendering the swine measly ; these animals, in their 

 turn, spreading the disease far and wide. Such a person may even 



