SUPPOSED OCCURRENCE OF THE BLADDER-WOEM IN MAN. 475 



also much infiltrated with blood. The same negative experiment was 

 made by Masse and Pourquier, ^ not only on lambs and sheep, but on 

 a rabbit and a dog. It was also made by Probstmayr^ on a dog, and 

 by Heller ^ on rabbits, guinea-pigs, and apes. 



The only animal, besides the ox and Zenker's goat, which has 

 hitherto exhibited the bladder- worm of Taenia saginata is the giraffe — 

 not the gazelle, as Kiichenmeister asserts. Moebius found in the flesh 

 of one of these animals, in the zoological garden at Hamburg, abundant 

 specimens of this species.^ It is very likely that the animal had 

 been infected in its home in the same way as the Abyssinian oxen. 



Prom the danger which attends the migration and development of 

 these bladder-worms, we may regard it as a very fortunate ciTcum- 

 stance that man is exempt from them. It is true that Heller^ lately 

 stated that Colberg in Kiel identified a human bladder-worm (from 

 the eye) as the Ct/sticercus Tcenice saginatce, but, so far as I know, no 

 further details have been published on this point. So that until the 

 connection of the animal with the tape-worm is established by more 

 explicit statements, I think I am at liberty to doubt the correctness 

 of the diagnosis, especially as it is well known that there are bladder- 

 worms of Tcenia solium with stunted or even quite abortive hooks. 

 So much at least is certain, that if the bladder-worms of Tcenia 

 saginata were at all' capable of development in man, many of them 

 would be found in the almost countless cases in which Cysticerci occur 

 in the brain and in the muscles. Their occurrence would probably be 

 even more frequent, since the risk of infection is much greater with 

 the constantly spontaneously liberated proglottides of Tcenia saginata 

 than in the case of T. solium. 



How long the bladder-worm of T. saginata remains living in its 

 host cannot at present be decided. But we may reckon the length of 

 its stay there at several years, judging from its great resemblance in 

 occurrence, nature, and time of development to the ordinary bladder- 

 woi'm of the pig. The fact that the bladder-worms of T. saginata 

 (perhaps in connection with the lively reactions which they call forth 

 onHhe^.part of the host) are destroyed much more frequently and 

 in much greater numbers while young, than is the case with the 

 bladder-worms of the pig, can hardly allow any inference as to the 

 fate of thej^survivors. Besides this, it appears as though it were 

 principally the bladder-worms .in the viscera which are liable to 

 this destruction. 



^ Ann. mid. viUr. Bruxelles, 1876. 



' Jahrb. dcr Munchner Thierarzneischule, 1869-70. 



» Loc. cit, Bd. vii., p. 602, 1875 (EngUsh transl, vol. vii., p. 718). 



* Zoologischer Garten, Bd. xii., p. 168, 1876. 



' ^- "*•• Bd. "b/^^M W*/i^sM'' "■ '''^- 



