On a Second and Third Case of Infection with Plerocercoides prolifer Ijima, found in Japan

Abstract

This peculiar larval form of cestode, parasitic in man, was first discovered in a Japanese woman (Case I) on 9. vii. 1904, and described by Prof. Ijima in 1905. Subsequently it was found in an American by Dr H. Gates, of Manatee, Florida, in June, 1907, and described by Dr Charles Stiles, who had received Gates' specimens for identification on 25. v. 1908. In the same year in which Gates' case was recorded, we observed a second case (Case II) in Japan. In this case an enormous number of worms were present and they were generally larger than those from the former Japanese and American cases. Recently a patient suffering from the same form of cestode larva (Case III) was found in the Dermatological Institute of the Imperial University of Kyoto.