426 



GROWTH AND STEUCTURE OF TjENU SAGINATA. 



considerable distance (3 to 4 mm.). From this main stem there 

 spring on either side about twenty to thirty branches, which succeed 

 each other at short distances, and with few exceptions extend over the 

 whole of the middle portion to the inner boundary of the cortical 

 layer, close to which they all end blindly. If we except the terminal 

 branches at each end, they all spring almost at right angles from the 

 main stem, only bending occasionally forwards or backwards, and 

 exhibiting many minor twists corresponding to the numerous second- 

 ary divisions which they give off in their course. The number of 

 definite branches is about eighty and more, but it must also be noted 

 that the side at which the peripheral pore is situated has always a 

 somewhat smaller number, since two lateral branches have usually 

 been replaced by the vas deferens and vagina about the beginning of 

 the posterior two-thirds of the proglottis. The proximal and distal 

 primary branches have their processes bent round from the transverse 

 direction towards the ends- of the proglottis, to which those in the 

 longitudinal axis are indeed almost at right angles. This is of course 

 most striking at the posterior end, where both the 

 branches themselves and their processes are of 

 considerable length, and are grouped on either side 

 in an almost fan-shaped manner. The triangular 

 space remaining in the middle between the two 

 halves is only incompletely occupied by longitu- 

 dinal ramifications.^ 



It is hardly necessary to note that the eggs, 

 lying somewhat freely within the uterus, are very 

 unequally distributed according to the direction of 

 the muscular pressure. Sometimes one branch, 

 sometimes another, is specially full and distended, 

 and the blind ends are not unfrequently swollen like clubs. But 

 the characteristic appearance of the uterine ramifications is never 

 hidden, nor are the distinctions obliterated which obtain between 

 this species and T. solium. The most hasty comparison of the 

 structure of the uterus in the two is, as a rule, quite enough for 

 correct diagnosis. 



I say, as a rule, for sometimes it must be allowed that there is a 

 certain variability in the structure of the uterus. On the one hand, 

 there are cases of T. solium in which the lateral branches of the 

 uterus are more or less abnormal in number, and on the other hand, I 



Tig. 242.— Uterus 

 of a free proglottis. 

 (X 2.) 



^ The first satisfactory observations on the nature of the uterus in Tcenia saginata are 

 those of Platner, who has given us a thorough if not exhaustive account of the stiiioture of 

 the generative organs ; " Anat. Untersuohungen iiber den menschliohen Kettenwurm," 

 Mailer's Archivf. Anat. u.^hmwl., p., 275..1859. ,.„ 



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