mice should be banished from the house, and all food kept out of their reach.
Davainea madagascariensis (Davaine, 1869)
Synonyms.—Tænia madagascariensis; T. demerariensis.
History.—Davainea madagascariensis was first described by Davaine in 1869 from fragments of two strobilæ without heads sent to him by Grenet, who discovered it at Mayotte, Comoro Islands, in two Creole children. In 1891 Leuckart described an entire specimen with scolex which was sent to him from Siam. But it is chiefly to Blanchard that we owe our knowledge of this parasite.
madagascariensis.
(After Blanchard.)
b, parasite (nat. size).
Geographical distribution.—The first two cases published were those of Grenet at Mayotte, but both came from abroad. One of them was an eighteen-months-old child who had arrived from the Antilles five months previously, the other a little two-year-old girl from Réunion who had landed two months previously. The next four cases were seen at Port Louis (Mauritius) by Chevreau, who looked for the parasite at Blanchard's suggestion. All these cases occurred in children, two of whom were only 5 years old. The seventh case, published by Leuckart, occurred at Bangkok (Siam) in a three-year-old boy, the son of a Danish sea-captain. The eighth was that of Daniels, who discovered the worm in an adult native at Georgetown (British Guiana). A further specimen was described by Blanchard, who found it in Davaine's collection with the following label: "Nossi-Bé (Island), November, 1873; passed by a little girl 3 years old." More recently, Garrison has described two cases in the Philippines.
Zoological distribution.—As yet D. madagascariensis has only been found in man, but the genus is widely distributed in mammals and birds. Amongst mammals it is found in rats (Mus siporanus, Mus rajah), in hares (Lepus sylvaticus, L. arizonæ, L. melanotis), in the pangolin (Manis pentadactyla). Amongst birds it is found in the ostrich (Struthio camelus), the common rhea (Rhea americana), the emu (Dromæus novæ hollandiæ), the little egret (Ardea garetta), the grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), and in fowls, pigeons, turkeys, pheasants, partridges, grouse, woodpeckers, black-birds, starlings, and quails.
The parasite (Fig. 202).—The strobila attains 25 to
