232 



ENTOZOA. 



nervous centres, eighty-four being in the cerebrum, twenty-two in 

 the membranes of the brain, four in the cerebellum, and one within 

 the substance of the medulla oblongata. 



Statistics. — The relative abundance of tapeworms in the human 

 body is in consonance with the habits of the people, but at present 

 our statistical data are rather meagre. " Herr Wauruch of Vienna 

 states that of 3864 persons treated in the space of twenty years at 

 an hospital of that city, 206 were affected with Taenia. Of these 

 latter, 71 were males, and 185 females. The oldest individual 

 affected was a man of fifty-four, the youngest being a girl of three 

 years and a half of age. Most were persons between fifteen and 

 forty years of age. Persons most concerned with animal provisions 

 were those observed to be chiefly attacked ; for, of the 206 patients, 

 1 was a man, and 52 were women cooks, several were butchers, 

 and eleven were eaters of large quantities of meat. Among predis- 

 posing causes, the principal were (considered to be) a habitation in 

 a damp neighbourhood, and the use of injured aliments, as bad 

 bread, flour, butter, potatoes, etc., but particularly bad mutton, 

 pork, and water." These facts are particularly interesting, and , 

 their value is not a little enhanced by the circumstance that they 

 were culled at a time long antecedent to our recent helminthologi- 

 cal discoveries. (For the original quotation from " Oesterr. Med. 

 Jahrb. ;" see "Lancet" for May 13, 1843, p. 229.) Some 

 curious and more recent statistical data will be foimd further on 

 in this work, imder the head of Tcenia mediocanellata. 



Treatment. — On this score I propose to say very Httle, as our 

 standard medical works, and especially also our periodicals, literally 

 teem with cases in which the employment of particular remedies 

 have been more or less strongly advocated. Discrepancies, it is 

 true, occasionally cast a doubt as to the relative value of certain 

 drugs; but, in the main, there is a general agreement, as well as a pre- 

 valent adoption of well known medicinal preparations. In the case of 

 the adult worm, the happiest cures are readily effected by the expulsion 

 of the "guest," but as regards the larvae the case is very different. 



