216 METAMORPHOSES OF MAN 



extremities a true cestoid worm. The latter is smooth 

 at first, but after awhile it becomes segmented, each 

 segment being really an animal, a distinct and bisexual 

 individual. As soon as this segment is sufficiently 

 developed, and its reproductive apparatus is charged 

 with fecundated ova, it is detached and expelled from 

 the intestine, and soon dies. The thousands of eggs 

 which it contained are swept away by the winds 

 and mingled with the dust ; thus becoming scattered 

 in every direction. Most of them perish. A few are 

 swallowed by some animal whose organization is 

 adapted to their development, and each of these 

 becomes the starting-point of a new series of trans- 

 formations and migrations. 



We say then, that the Taeniae, which up to this 

 period were regarded by most Helminthologists as 

 simple beings, are really not only compound animals, 

 but are true strobiles, and each of their apparent joints 

 is a proglottis. 



These views of the Louvain savant have been fully 

 borne out by experiment. 



Let us select, for example, the Ooenurus cerebralis. 

 This worm, which has been known for a long while, 

 was thought to develop itself by some unknown pro- 

 cess in the midst of the brain- sub stance of the sheep. 

 It is the presence of this very unwelcome guest 

 which produces that disease, known to cattle-dealers 

 as staggers. The Coenurus is like a semi-transparent 

 sac filled with liquid, and sometimes as large as an 

 egg. Numbers of heads, like those of the Taenia, are 

 found upon its surface, and in continuity with the 

 tissue of its envelopes. The Coenurus is therefore a 

 cystic worm. Like the other species of this order, it 



