ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD " SOLIUM." 411 



Plater, he also speaks of two species of the genus Tcenia — " L'un, qui 

 retient le nom du genre et qui s'appelle proprement Tcenia, lequel n'a 

 point du mouvement ni de tete formde ; et I'autre, qui se nomme 

 Soliv/m, k parce qu'il est toujours seul de son ^sp^ce dans les corps, 

 0^ n se trouve, et qui a du mouvement et une tete ronde fort bien 

 formee, faite comme un poireau." 



This is not the first time that we meet with the name Solium. 

 Even earlier observers used it, the earliest, so far as is known, 

 being Arnoldus de Villanova, who, in 1300, reports of a Lumhricus, 

 " qui aliquando emittitur longior uno vel duobus brachiis, qui Solium 

 sive Cingulum dicitur." Villanova had, therefore, found the name 

 somewhere else. Its origin is uncertain, for the derivation from solus 

 suggested by Andry is grammatically incorrect (on account of the i), 

 and is as obviously made to suit the case as is also the derivation 

 from solium, a throne — a word which suggests the solitary occurrence 

 of the tape -worm {Taenia saginata), a fact of which we find a hint 

 even in Hippocrates. The hook-bearing T. solium often occurs in 

 groups. 



In order to ascertain so far as possible the etymology of this 

 strange appellation, I sought to interest my honoured friend and 

 coUeague Dr. Krehl, Professor of the Oriental Languages at Leipzig, in 

 the question, and, to my great joy, have received from him the follow- 

 ing explanation : — 



" It is impossible," writes Krehl, " to derive the word Solium from 

 the classic languages, and we are further directed towards the Oriental 

 tongues by the fact that both in Arnoldus, who translated several 

 works of Avicenna, and in his predecessors, a knowledge of them may 

 be assumed. One naturally thinks first of Arabic ; but none of the 

 words by which the Arabs designated the tape-worm — for example 

 (I'M (worms), or chahh-al-kar'i (properly gourd-seed) agrees in sound 

 with the word Solium. 



" But as the Jews in the East and in Spain frequently busied them- 

 selves with the practice of medicine, or, more generally, with medical 

 studies, Hebrew might be referred to ; but with its kSkejdnin or kirsa 

 or rf'iire(? perhaps Mdf), it supplies nothing that might serve as an 

 explanation of the word Solium. Under these circumstances I should 

 like to offer as an explanation the certainly somewhat remote Syriac 

 word for the tape-worm, namely, schuscM-e (properly " chains "), which 

 is sufficiently attested by Bar Bahlul (see Payne-Smith, " Thesaurus 

 Hnguse Syriacse," i., 317, infr. s. v. Askdrides), and by Ferrari 

 (" Nomenclator Syriacus," p. 651). 



" Medical science had reached a high development in Syria, and 

 the Arabians doubtless first received from the Syrians an exact know- 

 Digitized by Microsoft® 



