USUAL SITUATION OF THE WOEM. 485 



drical body, almost like a long and thick thread of pretty firm texture, 

 and with wrinkles and cracks, some of which ran transversely, but most 

 of them in a longitudinal direction. These were partly destroyed by 

 soaking, and then one saw a distinct segmentation, whose 

 traces, when once discovered, were easily observable. The ex- 

 istence of eggs containing embryos in the interior has been 

 already noted by earlier observers. They have lost their 

 spherical form, and by the constriction of one segment have 

 assumed an almost hour-glass shape, as may be not unfre- 

 quently observed,^ if, by the application of strong spirit or 

 otherwise, the water is suddenly withdrawn from them. The 

 small length of the joints and the slender form of the 

 mummified worm, which are much more striking than in 

 Gobbold's case, lead me, however, to suppose that in Ziirn's 

 case the parasite was not Tcenia saginata, but T. solium. 



The normal abode of the tape-worm is the small intes- ^^^- 273.— 

 tine, to the walls of which it is fixed, usually towards the mummified 

 upper end. As may be assumed from analogy to related **P^ ■ worm 

 forms, the head is usually sunk in the villi of the intes- 

 tine, and covered by them. When in possession of its full vital 

 powers, the worm hangs so firmly that it is necessary to pull and 

 bend it before it will quit its hold. And even after it has done 

 so, it will attach itself again in a moment, if the head succeed in 

 catching hold of a portion of the intestine. Those who only know the 

 worm in its expelled condition can with difficulty form any proper 

 idea of the vital energy and mobility which it exhibits in its normal 

 condition, in the warm intestine of its host. The serpent-like motion 

 and powerful peristalsis of the jointed body, the continuous manifold 

 play of the suckers, and the bendings of the neck, are all phenomena 

 of which those who have seen the worm only in a cold and motionless 

 condition can have no idea. 



The tape- worm hangs from its point of attachment in the direction 

 of the stream of chyle, and generally close by the wall, so that its 

 whole length extends backwards within the alimentary canal. As a 

 rule it is straight, but more rarely it exhibits serpentine windings or 

 coils, according to the varying state of contraction of the different 

 parts. Pruner found in one corpse five Tcenice of considerable size," 

 which extended throughout the whole length of the small intestine ; 

 and Eobin saw one tape-worm which hung through the end of the 

 small intestine into the large intestine, although its point of insertion 

 lay high up near the pylorus, and although its anterior end was rolled 



^ Leuckart, " Blasenbandwiirmer," p. 95. 



