FIIGES.
The common tapeworm may cause disease, and even death, by its aggressions, either in the adult or in the larval stage of its existence. A mature tapeworm in the intestinal canal may give rise to a series of anomalous symptoms, including " vertigo, noises in the ears, impairment of sight, itching of the nose and anus, salivation, dyspepsia and loss of appetite, colic, pains over the epigastrium and in different parts of the abdomen, palpitation, syncope, the sensation of weight in the abdomen, pains and lassitude in the limbs, and emaciation."—Davaine Trait' des Entozoaires, etc., p. 103. Many cases are on record in which hysterical fits, chorea, epilepsy, convulsions of various kinds, and even mania, have been induced by the irritation excited by this para site, and have ceased at once on its removal. But distressing as these symptomatic phenomena may be, their injurious effects are trifling as compared with the troubles follow the deposition and growth of the larval form within the body, especially when the cysticerci find a home in the more important vital organs. There are at least a hundred cases on record in which the cysticercus has caused death by its development within the human brain. In the present state of our knowledge, it is impossible to diagnose these cases; and even if a correct diagnosis were possible, nothing could be dOne in the way of treatment. Epilepsy, with or without mania or imbecility, is com monly, but not invIrlably present in these cases. "Cysticerci," says Dr. Cobbold, "may develope thomselves in almost any situation in the human body, but they occur most fre quently in the subcutaneous areolar, and inter-muscular connective tissues; next, most commonly in the brain and eye, and lastly, in the substance of the heart and other viscera of the trunk."—Entozoa, p. 226. The adult form of the worm enters the system as the cysticercus of measly pork, and to eat raw or underdone measly pork is an almost cer tain means of introducing this parasite into the body. It is satisfactory to know that the temperature of boiling water is quite sufficient to destroy the vitality of the measles, and that in ordinary salted pork, and in hams, they are destroyed by the action of the salt in the one case, and of the combined salt and smoke in the other. Sausages, into which it is to be feared measly pork too often find its way, are rendered safe if they are cooked till no pink, raw-like, fleshy look can be seen in their center. Butchers are
especially liable to tapeworm, in consequence of their touching and cutting measly pork, and then accidentally transferring the cysticercus by the hand, or even by the knife to the mouth, and by indiscriminately using the same knife for various meats, both butchers and cooks may readily disseminate the infection over various articles of food. The larval worm may gain access into the human body by our swallowing the mature eggs of the tapeworm. Those who, as students of this department of natural histoty, handle fresh tapeworms, are perhaps especially liable to this misfortune; but, says Dr. Cob bold, " our neighbors, who devour choice salads, also run a certain amount of risk, not only as regards this entozoon, but as respects several others. The vegetables may be manured with night-soil containing myriads of tapeworm eggs, or they. may be watered with fluid filth into which these eggs have been cast. In such cases, one or more tape worm ova may be transferred to our digestive organs, unless the vegetables are carefully cleansed before they appear on the table. In the same way, one perceives how fallen fruits, all sorts of edible plants, as well as pond, canal, or even river water, procured from the neighborhood of human habitations, are liable to harbor the embryos capable of gaining an entrance to our bodies. It thus becomes evident also how one individual suffering from tapeworm may infect a whole neighborhood, rendering the swine measly, these animals in their turn spreading the disease far and wide." Such a person may also prove dangerous—even fatal to his neighbors directly (without the intervention of a pig), by ejecting mature proglottides, from which thousands of eggs may escape, some of which may readily come in contact with human food or drink, make their way into the stomach, and from thence get into the circulation, and finally to the brain, where they cause con vulsions and death. The most remarkable case on record of what may be termed a measly man, is one described, in 1864, by Delore, in the Gazette tiled. de Paris, and quoted by Dr. Cobbold. He died at the age of 77, from pulmonary catarrh, old age, and fractured neck of the thigh-bone; and on examining his body after death, no less than 2,000 cysticerci were found, of which 111 occurred in the nervous centers.