“On September 17th she brought me portions of a tapeworm corresponding throughout to the segments I had already seen, and measuring altogether nine feet in length. Unfortunately, the head was not to be found. Along the middle line of every segment in the body a crest or ridge runs longitudinally, and in the centre of the margin of this crest the genital pore is situated. [In 304 segments examined, only four had the genital opening placed laterally. One segment had two openings, viz. one at the lateral margin and the other in the crest.] Underneath the segment there is a longitudinal groove, and the lateral portions are folded together by the apposition of their under surfaces. When hardened in spirit the section of a segment presents a three-branched appearance, the branches being of unequal length, but placed at equal angles. The uterus sends vessels into the crest as well as into the sides of the segment; and the contained ova are exactly like the ova of an ordinary Tænia mediocanellata. Wedged in between, or attached to, the segments here and there, is a stunted and ill-shaped joint, with irregular and unequal sides. A mature joint measures from five eighths of an inch to three quarters of an inch in length, and about half an inch in breadth, and the breadth or depth of the crest is usually one eighth of an inch.
“There are only two specimens that I can find on record at all similar to the one here described, and both of these differ from it in several important particulars. Küchenmeister mentions, as a variety of Tænia mediocanellata, a tapeworm sent to him from the Cape of Good Hope by Dr Rose. This worm possessed a longitudinal ridge, but he describes its mature segments as ‘extremely massive’—more than an inch in length and 3/5″ in breadth. The genital pores, too, were irregularly alternate, and not situated on the crest. On March 20th, 1866, Dr Cobbold exhibited to the Pathological Society of London a specimen of crested tapeworm which was discovered in the museum of Middlesex Hospital, and to which he proposed to give the name Tænia lophosoma (λόφος, crest; σῶμα, body). The reproductive papillæ were all on one side of the chain of segments, a peculiarity which entirely distinguished it from the Cape of Good Hope variety of Küchenmeister. The head of the creature was wanting. It will thus be seen that my specimen does not correspond with either of these in the situation of the genital aperture. Here it is placed in the crest itself, and not unilaterally, as in Dr Cobbold’s specimen, or alternately, as in Küchenmeister’s. It further differs from the Cape variety in the more moderate dimensions of its proglottides. I have adopted, however, the name suggested by Dr Cobbold in the communication referred to, inasmuch as it sufficiently indicates the principal distinguishing feature of the specimen. I may mention that Dr Cobbold saw the specimen during his visit to Manchester, and that he regarded it as a most remarkable and unique abnormality.”
Further, in connection with abnormal cestodes, I may observe that Weinland’s case of a triple-crowned Cysticercus does not stand alone, since a similar specimen is, I believe, in the possession of the Rev. W. Dallinger. This was removed from the human brain. Curious as this subject is, I cannot dwell upon it. Not only are the mature tapeworms and their Cysticerci liable to present monstrosities, but even also their proscolices or six-hooked embryos. Thus, twelve hooks were observed by Salzmann in the embryo of T. elliptica, and Heller also figures two embryos of T. mediocanellata (T. saginata, Gœze) with numerous hooklets. Dujardin saw seven in a Bothriocephalus embryo. Occasionally there have been errors of interpretation made by observers. Thus, Diesing has given beautiful figures of Dibothrium hians in such a way as to suggest different degrees of monstrosity affecting the tail end of the strobile; but this splitting has clearly resulted from injury. Thus also, when I removed five specimens of a new cestode (Diphyllobothrium stemmacephalum) from the intestines of a porpoise, one of them was cleft nearly half way up the strobile. This had been done by the scissors employed in slitting up the gut; but owing to perfect contraction of the incised edges, it was some time before I discovered that the apparent monstrosity had been artificially produced. Lastly, I may add that many of the older writers were well acquainted with larval and other anomalies. Thus Rudolphi described a two-headed Cysticercus from a Lemur, and also a double-headed Tænia crassicollis. This worm had a tripartite body; as had likewise a Tænia crassicollis of which he did not possess the head (corpore prismatico). Other monstrosities were described and figured by Bremser and Creplin. Pallas mentions a two-headed Tricuspidaria (Triænophori nodulosi bicipites), and, as already stated at p. [97], a double-headed Cysticercus has been obtained from the liver of a sheep.
Before quitting the Tæniæ proper, I may observe that several other species have been indicated, based on ovular and other insufficient characters. To these belong Ransom’s supposed tapeworm, and also Weinland’s Tænia megaloön.
Bibliography (No. 18).—Bonnet, C., ‘Œuv. Compl.,’ tom vi, p. 191, 1791.—Bremser, Atlas, by Leblond, Pl. iv.—Chaussat, ‘Comptes Rendus,’ p. 20, 1850.—Cobbold, ‘Catalogue of the specimens of Entozoa in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England,’ Nos. 118–121, London, 1866.—Idem, ‘Worms,’ l. c., p. 78.—Idem, “On a Cysticercus from the Human Brain,” ‘Brit. Assoc. Rep.,’ 1870.—Creplin, ‘Tænia Monstrum, &c.,’ Berlin, 1839.—Cullingworth, C. J., “Notes on a remarkable specimen of Tapeworm (Tænia lophosoma, Cobbold),” ‘Med. Times and Gaz.,’ Dec., 1873.—Davaine, ‘Les Cestoïdes,’ l. c., p. 570.—Diesing, ‘Zwanzig Arten von Cephalocotyleen,’ figs. 1 and 2, taf. ii (aus dem xii, Bd. d. denkschr. d. Math.-nat. Cl. d. k. Akad.), Wien, 1856.—Dujardin, l. c., p. 619.—Heller, l. c., s. 600.—Küchenmeister, l. c., Eng. edit., p. 139.—Leuckart, l. c., s. 303 and 465.—Levacher, ‘Journ. l’Institut,’ p. 329, 1841.—Pittard, S. R., Remarks in his article “Symmetry,” Todd’s ‘Cyclop.,’ vol. iv, p. 848, 1849–52, in which he refers to a monstrous Bothriocephalus (T. lata) in the Hunterian Museum, old ‘Catalogue of Nat. Hist.,’ pl. iv, p. 50, No. 205; see also my ‘Catalogue,’ l. c., supra, No. 167.—Ransom, in Reynolds’ ‘System of Medicine.’—Rudolphi, ‘Synops.,’ p. 545 and 598–9, with fig. showing the heads of Cystic. Simiæ (biceps), widely apart, 1819.—Weinland (T. megaloön), in Zoolog. Garten, Frankf., 1861, s. 118.—Idem, ‘Essay,’ l. c., p. 11.
Fig. 25.—Head and neck of Bothriocephalus latus. a, Front view. The smaller figure represents the head as seen from the side. After Knoch.
Bothriocephalus latus, Bremser.—This species, though seldom seen in England, is sometimes brought hither by persons who have been residing for a time in foreign countries. It is indigenous in Ireland, and, though by no means common there, has been called the Irish Tapeworm. As regards its distribution in Europe it is much more prevalent in some districts than in others. On this point Leuckart remarks that “foremost amongst these are the cantons of West Switzerland, with the adjacent French districts. In Geneva, according to Odier, almost a fourth part of all the inhabitants suffer from Bothriocephalus. It is also common in the north-western and northern provinces of Russia, in Sweden, and in Poland. In Holland and Belgium it is likewise found, but, on the whole, not so frequently as in the first-named countries. Our German fatherland also harbours them in some districts, especially in eastern Prussia and Pomerania, and there have appeared cases in other places, as in Rhenish Hesse, Hamburg, and even in Berlin; these being apparently spontaneous instances.”
Unlike the ordinary tapeworms, the segments of the broad tapeworm do not individually separate so as to become independent organisms, a circumstance which is highly favorable to the bearer. Its remarkable breadth, and the extremely numerous and closely-packed proglottides, impart a sufficiently distinctive character; but this parasite may be more fully characterised as the largest human cestode at present known, attaining a length of more than twenty-five feet, and sometimes measuring nearly an inch in breadth; the so-called head 1/25″ in width, bluntly pointed at the tip, much elongated or club-shaped, slightly flattened from behind forwards, and furnished with two laterally disposed slit-like fossæ or grooves, but destitute of any armature: anterior or sexually-immature segments of the body extremely narrow, enlarging in a very gradual manner from above downwards; joints of the lower half of the body gradually decreasing in width, but enlarging in depth; sexually-mature segments usually about 1/8 of an inch in depth, but those near the caudal extremity frequently 1/4″, and quadrate in form; body flattened, but not so uniformly as obtains in the ordinary tapeworms, being rather thicker near the central line; total number of joints estimated at nearly 4000, the first sexually-mature ones being somewhere about the six hundredth from the head; reproductive orifices at the central line, towards the upper part of the segment at the ventral aspect, the vaginal aperture being immediately below the male outlet, and both openings surrounded by papillæform eminences; uterus consisting of a single tube, often seen regularly folded upon itself, forming an opaque, conspicuous, centrally-situated rosette; eggs oval, measuring 1/350″ in length by 1/550″ in breadth, having three shell-coverings, and a lid-like operculum at one end, as occurs in the fluke-worms. Owing to the dark color of the egg shells, the uterine rosette is readily seen by the naked eye as a conspicuous deep brown spot at the centre of each successive segment.
