CLINICAL CHRONICLES 
497 
The presence of these tapeworms readily accounts for the 
emaciation, diarrhoea and intestinal irritation; but it seems im¬ 
possible to account for the apparent heredity of these symptoms. 
The other cows of the herd have always been perfectly healthy 
in every respect. The great grandmother of this cow is living 
on a farm near Hartford, and her owner says she is as well as any 
cow of six years—she is eighteen years old. 
Prof. Liautard: 
Hear Sir. —The specimen which you left for examination—a 
taenia from a cow—is undoubtedly a Taenia Mediocanellata, a 
beef tapeworm. I found but one head, and think all the seg¬ 
ments in the bottle belong to one strobila. My reasons for con¬ 
cluding that this is a Taenia Mediocanellata are based on, 1st, The 
head, which is truncated, has four large disks, is hookless, and 
has no proboscis. 2d. The segments show quite a number of 
monstrosities, or imperfectly shaped proglothides, more frequent 
in this form of taenia than any other. The general shape of the 
segment and the arrangement of uterine branches are also con¬ 
firmatory. I have mounted the head, which I will send or bring 
you soon, and enclose a rough sketch of the head and abnormal 
proglothides. 
Can it be determined whether the cow could have obtained 
fresh meat, in any way, by accident or from a slaughter-house ? 
1 do not know whether the embryo and placenta are ever infested 
with the beef measle or immature form of Taenia Mediocanellata. 
I see no reason why they might not be. As cows have the habit 
of devouring the placenta and membranes, might not this be a 
plausible method of infecting the same animal with the mature 
form ? It would be a rare method, as it requires an unusual coin¬ 
cidence between development of measles and delivery. 
The idea has occurred to me, and I throw it out as a sug¬ 
gestion. Sincerely yours, 
W. II. Birdsall. 
The benefit that the surgeon obtains by the use of anaesthesia 
is undoubtedly of greater importance in human than in veterinary 
medicine. With the former, besides the relief from pain, there 
