228 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
CASE OF TAPE-WORM OCCURRING IN CONNECTION WITH 
THE EATING OF RAW PORK. 
By Dr. W. T. Gairdner. 
At a recent meeting of the Medico- Chirurgical Society of 
Edinburgh, Dr. Gairdner narrated the case of a girl then 
under his care in the infirmary, which seemed to support the 
views of Siebold and Kuchenmeister, as to the transforma- 
tion of the cysticercus cellulosse, found in the hog and other 
domestic animals, into the tania solium. Nine yards of the 
tape-worm had been expelled under the action of the shield- 
fern oil. On inquiry, the girl admitted that she had been in 
the habit of eating quantities of raw pork and butcher-meat 
generally. This w T as from a peculiar liking or inclination of 
her own, and was not a habit contracted in consequence of 
the example of others. In other respects her diet had been 
similar to that generally in use in her station in life in Scot- 
land. It was well ascertained, that in Scotland the occur- 
rence of tape-worm was rare as compared with some parts of 
England, and very rare when compared with some other 
European countries. It was not less unusual in Scotland to 
indulge in the eating of raw flesh, which practice was believed 
to be a frequent source of the production of taenia. The occur- 
rence of taenia was very common in Germany, where the prac- 
tice of eating raw ham was also prevalent. On the other hand, 
Dr. Gairdner had reason to believe that taenia was rare in Hol- 
land, where the eating of raw animal food is very unusual. Dr. 
Gairdner alluded to a case lately published by Dr. Crighton 
( Monthly Journal , June, 1855,) in which he had been able to 
trace the occurrence of taenia solium to the practice of 
eating raw meat, a practice which was common among the 
Lancashire operatives. Dr. Gairdner was inclined to attri- 
bute the rarity of the occurrence of hydatids in Scotland 
to the small proportion of animal food, and especially of 
ill-cooked animal food, used by the labouring classes. During 
Dr. Gairdner’s connection, as pathologist, with the Infir- 
mary, he had opened not fewer than 1500 bodies, and he had 
never met with a single case of hydatids of the liver. Two 
cases had otherwise come under his notice; but in his 
dissections at the Infirmary, he had never seen one instance 
of the occurrence of the acephalocyst. In the London 
hospitals a considerable number w^ere known to occur every 
year. 
