Parasites: A Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and Animals: Including Some Account of the EctozoaCobbold, T. Spencer (Thomas Spencer)
Science
Parasites: A Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and Animals: Including Some Account of the Ectozoa
Cobbold, T. Spencer (Thomas Spencer)
Helminths; Parasites
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Head of a _Cysticercus_ removed from the brain.
Magn. 5 diam. with detached hooks. Original.]
As regards infection by the adult worm it is not alone sufficient that
we avoid underdone _meat_, as brought to the dinner-table, but we must
be especially careful to have our sausages well cooked. Under ordinary
circumstances, we are safe for the following reasons:--No respectable
butcher will knowingly supply us with pork or with sausages which are
measled. Even in the case of underdone meats, in whatever way prepared,
it is usually only a small portion which is unaffected by cooking. As
we have seen a temperature of 140° Fahr. is sufficient to kill the
Cysticerci.
The successful rearing of pork measles by experimentation with the
eggs of _T. solium_ has been accomplished by many helminthologists,
amongst whom may be particularised Van Beneden, Leuckart, Küchenmeister,
Haubner, Gerlach, and Baillet. The converse experiment of rearing the
adult worm from the Cysticercus was first successfully undertaken by
Küchenmeister on a condemned criminal; Leuckart, Humbert, and others
having repeated this method with more or less success.
The dangers arising from infection by swallowing the larval worms or
six-hooked embryos are not easily avoided. Our flesh, like pork, thus
becomes measled, although certainly not to the spawn-like extent so
often seen in the lower animals. A single measle is sufficient to
prove fatal; and this humiliating contingency, moreover, is one which
we can never be absolutely certain of avoiding. We become the “host”
or bearer of the measle by swallowing the fully-developed eggs of the
_Tænia solium_. This we may do directly by handling fresh tapeworms,
whose eggs, being concealed under our nails or in our clothing, may
subsequently be swallowed, and develop within us accordingly. Even a
thorough washing of the hands will not ensure absolute security. In like
manner, those who partake of choice salads, prepared from the stores
of the market-gardener, run a certain amount of risk. The vegetables
may have been manured with night-soil containing myriads of tapeworm
eggs, or they may have been watered with fluid filth into which the
eggs were accidentally cast. In such cases, one or more tapeworm ova
will be transferred to the digestive organs, unless the vegetables
have been very carefully cleansed. In the same way, one perceives how
fallen fruits, all sorts of edible plants, as well as pond, canal, and
even river water procured from the neighbourhood of human habitations,
are liable to harbour embryos capable of gaining entrance to the
human body. One individual suffering from tapeworm may infect a whole
neighbourhood by rendering the swine measly, these animals, in their
turn, spreading the disease far and wide. As already remarked, measles
sometimes occur in great numbers in different parts of the body. Among
the more remarkable cases of the multiple Cysticerci are those recorded
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