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Tapeworm infections were common in the late 19th century due to a lack of food safety laws and meat inspections.

Historical accounts from Muncie detail tapeworms growing to dozens of feet long inside local residents.

Without modern medicine, people relied on unproven remedies from "quack doctors" and traveling salesmen.

Infections declined in the 20th century with the introduction of federal regulations, refrigeration and improved sanitation.

In late April of 1880, the Muncie Daily Times wrote that Munsonian doctor William Egbert had removed a 46-foot-long tapeworm from an unnamed fellow citizen.

This was the first of many ghastly tapeworm reports I found in local newspapers from the two decades before 1900.

Tapeworms were a common human parasite up through the l

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