40 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
and had, therefore, been suspected of rabies and killed. Large numbers 
of Distoma were found in the liver. The possibility of human infection 
is pointed out, and the suggestion made that in cases of Cirrhosis hepatica 
careful search should be made, more especially as Winogradoff has 
already shown that in Siberia, D. felinum occurs in man, and causes 
Cirrhosis parasitaria hepatos. The author also mentions some recent 
observations on D. Westermanni. His chief object appears to be to 
point out the danger of human infection from the diffusion of these 
parasites. 
Hymenolepis diminuta Rudolphi found in Man.* — Prof. P. S. do 
Magalhaes records a second instance of the occurrence of Hymenolepis 
diminuta Rudolphi ( Taenia flavopunctata Weinland) in man. The 
patient was a mulatto, twenty months old, living at Rio de Janeiro. 
The worm passed was 18 cm. long and 3J mm. broad. The broadest 
part was some 18-20 links before the posterior end, the links there being 
0*3 mm. long. Altogether, about 1300 links were counted. The head 
was 0 '56-06 mm. broad, and was furnished with four suckers, close to 
the rostellum. The neck was short and 0*34 mm. broad. The genital 
pores were on one side. The eggs were round, with a diameter of 
59*5 p, and that of the embryos was about 34 p. The last eight links- 
of the chain, which were quite empty, were 0 • 6 mm. long and 1 * 5 mm. 
broad. The case is recorded on account of the rarity of this Tsenia as a 
human parasite. 
Tsenia (Hymenolepis) nana v. Siebold and Taenia murina Duj.f 
— Prof. O. von Linstow is of opinion that Tsenia nana and T. 
murina are distinct species. He relies on differences of size and 
anatomy. The number, shape, and size of the booklets are different 
in both examples. The cortical layer is more strongly developed in the 
human tapeworm than in the parasite of the rat. On the other hand,. 
T. murina has larger testes than T. nana. Other differences occur in 
the disposition of the receptaculum seminis in the ripe proglottides, and 
in the structure of the eggs. In T. nana the ova are spherical and 
double shelled, and on the inner investment are two thread-like processes. 
The ova of T. murina are triple shelled and elliptical. The inner coat 
has a knob-like process at both poles. Tsenia nana has a universal dis- 
tribution, while the allied cestode of the rat and mouse has hitherto been 
found only in Europe. The hosts of both worms are different, and 
whether the direct development of T. murina occurs also in T. nana of 
man, the future can only decide. 
Cysticerci of Bothriocephalns latus.J — Mr. A. E. von Schroeder 
gives, in Russian, an account of his studies on the broad-worm in 
Russian fishes. Out of 80 two-year-old perches examined only 28 were 
infected, and these only in very small quantities. It appears likely that 
the fish becomes directly, and at various ages, again and again infected 
with the free-swimming larvae of this parasite. The spring and summer 
months appear to be those in which infection most frequently occurs. 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., l te Abt., xx. (1806) pp. 673-4. 
f Reference given is 12 pp. and 8 figs. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk , 
l te Abt., xx. (1896) p. 708. 
t Prakt. Medizin, iii. (1896) Beil. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk.,. 
l te Abt., xx. (1896) p. 621. 
