Respecting the organisation of this worm I may observe that the mature joints have a more complicated uterine organ than obtains in Tænia solium, presenting nearly double the number of lateral branches. They are more closely packed, running outwardly in an almost parallel manner. The first sexually mature proglottis occurs at about the 450th joint, but whereas, in the pork tapeworm, only some 200 subsequent segments share this perfect character in the beef tapeworm, according to Leuckart, as many as 360 or even 400 mature joint may be present. The joints are very liable to form monstrosities; these abnormalities sometimes affecting the reproductive organs, which become doubled or even trebled. In the Hunterian collection there is a proglottid showing twenty-two sexual orifices. Dr Cullingworth, of Manchester, has described a specimen in which the joints are curiously tripartite.
As already hinted the true source of this parasite has been proved by experiment; the first successful worm-feeding having been accomplished by Leuckart. Mosler’s, and subsequently my own feeding experiments, immediately followed. Other successful experiments with this species have been conducted by Zurn, Probstmayer, St Cyr, Perroncito, Masse and Pourquier, and Zenker. As will be again mentioned below Dr Oliver, R.A., whilst stationed at Jullundur, successfully reared the adult tapeworm in a Mohammedan groom and in a Hindoo boy. It will also be seen that Prof. Perroncito reared the worm in a student in fifty-four days. In my own experiments on animals I was assisted by Professor Simonds. The feeding materials were tapeworms expelled from my own patients. We obtained the following interesting results:
Exp. 1.—A calf. First feeding, Dec. 21st, 1864. Marked symptoms. Slaughtered April 3rd, 1865. Result positive.
Exp. 2.—A calf. First feeding, April 13th, 1865. Second, third, and fourth feedings in May and June. No symptoms. Died on Sept. 3rd, 1865, after thirty-six hours’ illness with “cattle plague.” Result stated to have been negative as far as the muscles were concerned. Viscera not examined.
Exp. 3.—A Dutch heifer. First feeding, March 3rd, 1865. Three subsequent feedings. Symptoms only slight. Slaughtered April 4th, 1866. Result positive. Measles especially numerous in the diaphragm, but all had undergone calcareous degeneration.
Exp. 4.—A calf. Fed May 27th, 1872, with ripe proglottides. Marked symptoms set in on June 7th, which began to abate on the 12th, and had nearly disappeared by the 20th of the same month. The record of the post-mortem result has been lost; but the animal was infected.
Exp. 5.—A calf, which had been made the subject of a “glanders experiment.” First fed on Oct. 17th, 1872, and thrice in the following year, Jan. 1st and 11th, and March 8th. No symptoms having appeared the animal was kept for six or eight months after the last feeding. Seeming to be free from disease of any kind, it was sold as a sound heifer.
Exp. 6.—A young heifer calf, of six months. Fed Oct. 18th, 1873, with the mature proglottides of a large beef tapeworm. No symptoms. Slaughtered several months afterwards. Result stated to have been negative. Unfortunately I was not present at the autopsy.
Exp. 7.—A young heifer. First fed May 19th, 1874, with the joints of a tapeworm, and again on June 12th. No apparent ill effects resulted, but the animal died in October. At the post-mortem examination, made by Prof. Simonds, no parasites were observed. Subsequently I found calcareous specks in the liver which proved to be degenerated measles.
Exp. 8.—A calf. Fed on or about March 24th, 1875, with sexually mature joints. The calf was put to and remained with a foster mother until it died from disease of the larynx on the 15th of the following July. The animal was ill-treated by its foster parent, and at the post-mortem I observed a large intercostal cicatrix, evidently the result of injury. In this case I devoted several hours to the exploration of the muscles and viscera. Not a trace of the Cysticercus bovis could be found in the muscles or connective tissues, but the liver contained scores of perfectly developed measles, besides hundreds of others in various stages of calcareous degeneration. On comparing some of the latter with those I had obtained from the preceding experiment the pathological appearances were at once seen to be identical. It was easy to find and pick out the measles in their cysts from the naturally friable liver. I also detected four Cysticerci in the lungs, two of which had degenerated. Microscopic examination confirmed my interpretation of the naked-eye appearances.