Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TAPE-WORM, n. [tape and worm.]

A worm bred in the human intestines. The popular name of various worms infesting the alimentary canal of different animals. They are parenchymatous entozoa, of the tenioid family. The broad tape-worm is the Bothriacephalus latus; the common tape-worm is the Tænia Solium. Both of these infest the human species, and are destroyed by the oil of turpentine in cathartic doses.