The daily morning oasis., 1919-03-30
/ PHYSICAL
Department
BY DR.. .WELLsMAN
Intestinal Parasites,
Tape Worms The
Beef Tape Worm.
The Pork Tape.
Worm.

There are several species of tape
worm which inhabit the human di-
gestlve system, but only two species
are commonly found in man: the beef
tape-worm and the pork tape-worm.
OF these two varieties, the beef
worm is by far the commoner in this
country while the pork worm, though
very rare in the United States. is
quite common in some parts of Eu-
rope.
4 The tape-worm is an entirely diff
] ferent form of parasite from any
other worm, and In order to under
stand these differences short study
of IT'S life history is necessary. When
the egg of a tape-worm is passed
from its original carrier it finds itself
either floating about in water or de-
posted on the ground or vegetable
growth. AS it is extremely tenacious
of life, it manages to exist until it is
swallowed with the food or water of
either cattle or hogs, as the case may
be. In the stomach of it's "host" it
matches out as larva, which bores
through the walls of the iptenstine
and finds it's way into the muscular
tissues. There it ceases to develop
and forms around itself small blad-
der-like cyst. When the flesh so in
fected is eaten by man, without suf-
ficient cooking to destroy the solex,
as it is called, the bladder-like COW
ering is dissolved, and the solex CT
"head" attaches itself to the walls of
the small intestine. Strictly speak
| ing, the solex is not the "head" of a
worm, but complete worm in itself
and from it developes a series of
other worms, attached to each other
in the form of links, like battened
chain. Each link is a separate ami
NAL, comprising both sexes in one
body and capable of producing their
kind At first, when the links are
close to the solex, they are very
small and appear almost thread-like,
but as successive links are formed
they become larger in every way, un-
til they are finally fully developed
and measure from one-quarter to
three-eighths of an inch long by one
half to three quarters of an inch
broad. 1t requires about twelve
weeks for the tape-worm to fully de-
velop. If it is possible to examine
carefully a complete, fully developed
tape-worn1, one will find at the upper
end, first, the small, roundish solex,
or head, about the size of pinhead,
then an inch or more of slender,
hair-like links forming the so-called
"necq" and then the segments, grad
ually increasing in width and length
until at the lower end they are nearly
or quite square. The shape of these
links changes in the various stages
Of their development, the younger
being broader than long, and the full
ly developed being longer than they
are broad. In length the beef worm
may measure thirty feet, and occa-
sionally enc is removed entire that
will exceed that in length; but the
pork worm is much smaller, and is
usually less than fifteen feet from
end to end. The same treatment is
used for both species.
The tape worm has no digestive
organ whatever, and receives its
nourishment from the contents of the
bowel in which it lives. When only
partially developed it is not apt to
cause any unpleasant symptoms and
its presence is usually detected by
accident; but when more fully grown
it makes itself known by a number
of unpleasant and distressiog distur-
Dances. There is usually ravenous
and capricious appetite with a crav-
ing for strange mixtures of food, a
sense of fullness in the lower abdo-
men, a feeling that something is
crawling in ones bowels, and fre-
quently feeling of exhaustion and
numbness of the arms and legs. A
positive proof of the existence of tape
worm is the passage of links or con-
nected segments, a condition which
will exist if the worm has reached
sufficient size to cause the other more
indefinite symptoms.
Laxcarin has been found very
efficient destroyer of both types of
tape worm. In order to experience
the above referred to symptoms, you
may be sure that there is something