OLDER OBSEEVATIOXS UPON BLADDER-WORMS. 557 



it appeared to him to furnish proof " dare glandulas adventitias plane 

 sanas, nisi quod in numero partium prsenaturalium recenseantur." 

 I formerly expressed the opinion that this case of bladder-worms in 

 man was " perhaps " the oldest known, hut I have learned from 

 Kiichenmeister^ that in 1558 Eumler observed in the dura mater and 

 roof of the skull of an epileptic patient certain tumours in regard to 

 which the question arose "num pustulse illse morbi Gallici soboles 

 fuerint." Similarly Panarolus in 1650 saw Cysticerci on the corpus 

 callosum of an epileptic priest.^ But, including these cases, the old 

 reports as to bladder-worms are extraordinarily scanty. Nevertheless 

 it seems as though the structures in question had been very generally 

 known to physicians from that time onwards. This may be partly in- 

 ferred from the statement of Hartmann, the discoverer of the animal 

 nature of bladder-worms in general and of those of the pig in parti- 

 cular (p. 511), who in his last communication'' speaks as follows : — 

 " Glandia, aut quocunque nomine his atfines veniant pustulse, nidos 

 esse vermiculorum, mihi fit veresimile." We need not note how strik- 

 ingly the supposition thus expressed has been fulfilled. 



The importance of these worms from a clinical point of view was 

 probably first noticed in connection with those found in the brain. 

 Since these were found to be present in patients who had suffered 

 from cerebral or mental diseases, it was natural to connect the two, 

 and that all the more since it had been widely recognised^ since 

 Wepfer's investigations in 1672 that the staggers of sheep and oxen 

 was due to a watery bladder found in the brain. The latter was 

 our Ccenurus, whose animal nature was first recognised in Goze's 

 time by Leske.^ Before Werner's discovery, Goze, along with other 

 observers, such as Morgagni, called attention to the fact that certain 

 " extraordinary diseases of the head " were readily occasioned by Tcenice 

 vesiculares.'^ 



The pathological phenomena evoked by Cysticercus cellulosce are 

 very variable, according to the occurrence and position of the parasites. 

 Where they are found exclusively in the subcutaneous connective 

 tissue, or in the musculature of the body, they may be almost harmless. 



' "Parasiten," second edition, p. .58. Kiichenmeister seems to have overlooked the 



'' See for further particulars regarding this case, KUchenmeister's studies on the his- 

 tory of Cestodes, Deutsch.es Archiv f. Geschichte der Medicin, Bd. ii., Heft. 4. 



' Ephem. Acad. not. cur., Dec. ii., Ann. vji., p. 58, 1688. 



* " De Apoplexia," p. 56. 



° "Von dem Drehen der Schafe und dem Blasenbandwurm im Gehirn derselben als 

 Ursaohe dieser Krankheit : " Leipzig, 1788. 



° Loc. cit., p. 249. Among the cases here mentioned, those of Weikard may be 

 referred with tolerable certainty to Cysticercus cdlulosce. 



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