What is the origin of the tapeworm?
Origin of
the Tapeworm
Q. What is the origin of the tapeworm?
A. The tapeworm is always
due to the eating of flesh which has
been imperfectly cooked.
The embryos of the young tapeworm are found in
little sacks or cysts in the lean flesh of
beef or pork.
The embryos of tenia solium may he seen with the naked
eye, looking like small bladders in the lean meat of pork. In beef the cysts are
too small to be readily seen with the unaided eye.
Flesh containing these creatures is said to be "measly." This disease
is very common in Ireland, where, according to good authorities, as large a
proportion as three per cent of the hogs are
affected. The disease is communicated to man by eating measly flesh without
sufficient cooking to kill the embryos; hence it is
most common among those who eat raw meat. Pork-packers and cooks are
said to be most frequently affected with tapeworm, which is probably due to the
habit of eating raw meat when about their work. Among the Abyssinians, whose
regular diet is raw flesh, almost every person has a tapeworm.
It was formerly supposed that the danger of acquiring
this disagreeable tenant was wholly connected with the use of pork; but the re
searches of Doctor Leidy, of Philadelphia, during the last fifteen years,
recently made public, have shown that the variety of the worm which is most
common is that caused by the use of raw beef.
The Tapeworm has, in rare instances, been the cause of
death. It is a cause of weakness and general vital depreciation, and may, in this way, by lowering vital resistance,
predispose to diseases such as tuberculosis and other maladies which may result
in death, although it does not usually itself lead to a fatal result.