Varieties of toads and frogs are widespread throughout China, and have been noted there since remote times. The ancient Chinese people, especially those who lived in southern China, were quite found of eating frogs. In traditional Chinese medicine such animals were considered to be of the chilling or cooling nature and have heat-clearing and toxicity-expelling effects. Thus toads and frogs were frequently used to treat a variety of disorders caused by the toxicity of heat, such as surface wounds, sores, scabies, toothache, tooth decay, poisonous snake-bites, etc. From the third century onward the Chinese people applied the raw meat of or skin peeled from living toads or frogs to the sore spot or even ate the raw meat of the toad or frog to cure the above diseases. Therefore the Sparganum mansoni which parasitized the frogs got the opportunity to invade human bodies and consequently caused the hosts to become infected with the Sparganosis mansoni.