Note 290 — ON PARASITES IN GENERAL. (continued 8)

The diagnosis as a rule is not difficult; the patients themselves frequently observe the pumpkin seed-like segments in the fæces. But in such cases the diagnosis must still be confirmed. In other cases the discovery of the oncospheres in their embryonal shells (embryophores), which cannot be confounded with the other constituents of the fæces, gives complete certainty, although the differential diagnosis between T. solium and T. saginata is hardly possible from the embryophores; but, if evacuated segments are placed between two slides and lightly pressed, the species is easily recognizable by the shape of the uterus (cf. figs. 239 and 241).