There are no special symptoms associated with the presence of the cysticercus stage in he human body.
In all cases the only conclusive sign of worms s the passage of a worm, or parts of one, in the !feces, which ought in all suspected cases to be arefully scrutinized.
The treatment of tape-worm is happily not lifficult, is perfectly safe, and usually success ful. The drug now most esteemed is the male fern root, of which both powder and extract may be used, but the extract is preferred. Half a tea-spoonful to one tea-spoonful and a half according to age) of the liquid extract should be given, made up with a little syrup of ginger and water. It acts best when taken early in the morning, only liquid nourishment having been taken the previous day. This secures that the tape-worm is not protected from the drug by masses of food-stuffs. Four hours after the medicine a strong dose of castor-oil will aid in bringing away the worm. The powders of kousso and karuala are also admirable for de stroying tapeworms. Of either of them 60 to 180 grains are given, made up with honey or syrup, early in the morning, and are followed, after some hours, by a purgative dose of castor oil. In the absence of any of these medicines oil of turpentine may be employed, 1 to 3 tea spoonfuls being given with 4 tea-spoonfuls of castor-oil, also early in the morning.
The stools that are passed after the adminis tration of the medicine ought to be carefully scrutinized, not only for joints of the tape worm, but for its whole length, and specially for its minute head. As has been already men tioned, the Tcenia solium is firmly secured to the mucous membrane of the bowel by its crown of hooklets. It is more difficult, con sequently, to remove it than the head of other kinds. Since it is from the head that the pro duction of joints occurs by budding, one's security is greatest if the head has been de tached and voided in the stools.
Ta3nia eehinocomus (Hydatid) is a form of tape-worm whose adult condition is found in the dog and wolf, but which may exist in the human body in a larval or immature condition, in which state it forms cysts or sacs, filled with fluid (hydatid cysts), and of various sizes in various organs of the body, but specially in the liver. "Where dogs are not kept it is well-nigh impossible that the disease should be contracted." The disease is very common in Iceland, where, at one time, it was estimated there were as many as 10,000 people suffering from it. " The fact that every Icelandic
sant possesses on an average six dogs, and that these dogs share the same dwelling (eating oil the same plates and enjoying many other leges of intimate relationship) sufficiently plains the frequency of hydatids in that try." In Britain dogs are comparatively rarely infested with this tape-worm. In Australia the hydatid disease is also very common, being very prevalent in Victoria. A magnified view of the fully-developed teenia, as found in the dog or wolf, is shown in Fig. 119. It is very much smaller than the other tzenim that have been described, measuring only ith of an inch in length. It contains only four segments. One segment forms the head, which has a pointed extremity, a double crown of lets, numbering thirty to forty, and four suckers. The last segment is as long as the other three put gether, and contains the eggs. The eggs, set free from a dog, may gain access to water, and thus, in drink or in other ways, may be duced into the body. The eggs are acted on in the stomach, and from them are liberated bryos with six boring hooks, which work their way into the blood-vessels of the person, and are thus distributed throughout the body. Having arrived in a suitable organ, the embryo goes changes by which it becomes converted into the hydatid cyst, in which form it is found in man. The cyst is a sae of varying size, at first small, the size of a nut or less, but capable of growing to a size equal to that of a child head. The cyst is filled with granular and fluid contents. From the walls of this sac others grow bud-like. These are called " brood capsules," because it is within them that the second stage of the Tcenia echinococcus is developed. The contents of a brood capsule become converted into an echinococcus head, which is about the to thth of an inch in length and of an egg shape. The head has a proboscis with a double circle of booklets, and there is a constric tion in the middle of the small structure which divides the extremity with the head from the other. Fig. 120 shows a cyst with brood cap auks in its interior, and above this figure is represented one of the echinococcus heads as removed from its capsule.