Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-10-01
u1No1NNArI, HAMIIroN ANp DAYTON
Tape.Worms and pIensIy Pork.

Strange, passing strange, and wonderful
will be found the facts in this article.
In Boston there is very learned German,
D. f. Weinland, Ph. D., doctor of Philoso-
pby,) who is devoting his life to the study
of tspe worms. During the last ten years
he has dissected more than five thousand
animals in search of these singular parasites,
and the facts which ne and his collaborators
in this field of Investigation have ascertained
are exceedingly curious.
Tape-worms are found in all classes Of
vertebrated animals, fishes as well as land
animals, different species of animals gener-
ally having different species of tape. worms
that of the horse differing from that of the
ass; that Of the sheep from that of the goat
and that of the rat from that of the mouse.
The common human tape worm lives and
grows in the bowels. Its head is provided
with four suckers with a cluster of little
hooks, by means of which it attaches itself
to the intestine, the body floating two or
three yards down, and absorbing the nour-
ishing juices, either through small openings
or through the skin. The body consists of
several hundred rings or sections which grow
out of the head, so that those nearest the
head are the youngest, and the Oldest are at
the end Of the tail. The creature is an her.
maphrodite; and as the joints mature, the
sexual organs are developed, the male and
female both in the same joint. The joints
then break of, each one in complete living
animal, preserving its existence frequently
for considerable time, and laying numbers
of eggs after it is broken off.
The eggs pass out by forces, and never
hatch unless they enter the stomach of a
hog. But if the joints are eaten by hog, or
il the eggs find their way into the water that
is drunk by swine, the eggs hatch in the
hogs stomach, producing animals SO small
as to be invisible to the naked eye, but
~, lA, ~ -
have three pairs of spines, by means Of which
they bore their way into the walls of the
blood vessels and enter into the circulation.
Here they are carried into the muscles oil
the hog, where they grow into a curious
animal, having the head and neck of a hu-
man tape.worm, with a round bladder tail,
and producing the disease called measles.
1t has long been known that messly pork
was caused by this little bladder-tailed ami
maj, but it is only within few years that the
curious fact has been ascertained that this
animal is the larVa of the common human
tapeworm. 1t is now proved by careful obser-
vation that if one of these animals is taken
into the human stomach, the bladder-like
tail is digested, while the living head and
neck pass down into the intestines, where
they hook on: and the rings begin rapidly
to grow out into the well-known tape worm,
Other species of tape-worms, living in
other animals, have natural history similar
that of the human tape-worm. They all
i've in the intestines Of vertebrated animals
(animals with backbones), and each species
must be Matched in the stomach of some
animal different from that in which it is
developed. For instance, one of the tape
worms Of the dog is hatched in the stomach
of hare, and another in that of an OK; and
the tape-worm of cat is Matched in the
stomschs OF rats and mice.
A bout two hundre sneciee nf tana- worms
have been described, five of them being
found in man. There are only two, how,
ever, that are at all common. One of these
is narrow worm with hooks on its head,
found particularly in the Teutonic nations,
German, English and Americans) and the
broad tape worm without hooks, which seems
to live almost solely in the Swiss and in
the Sclavonic nations. The former and
more common of these two species has a
head about the size of a pins head, and the.
body gradually widens to about quarter Of
an inch, sometimes reaching a length of two
and a quarter feet. Tape. worms have been
found 10 sheep one hundred feet long.
1t is doubted by some physicians whether
tape-Uorms are Injurious to health, though
it seems probable that they are. They are
certainly generally accompanied either by
cerebro spinal affections, or nassau, OF in
digestion, or collie. The great remedy is
pomeRranite bark.
There are four orders of "intestipal
worms or "helminthes," and the several
species of tape worms constitute one of
these orders. The name given by natural,
lists TO this order is CestOidea from cestos
girdle Of Venus.
We have obtained the curious facts given
above from pamphlet published by DR.
Weinland, some time since, at Cambridge.