PSEUDO-HELMINTHS. 241 



several parasites." On the other hand, a dentist of considerable 

 experience writes me: — "I have seen parasites drop from the 

 mouths of patients on the bare application of hot water and by- 

 steaming the mouth." I need hardly say that such testimony 

 might have proved of more value had these bodies been exam- 

 ined under the microscope and classified. 



I am well aware of the fact, however, that the seeds of the 

 henbane plant do furnish us at times with a spurious body which 

 may be mistaken for a " worm " or parasite. Those of my 

 readers curious in these matters may easily satisfy themselves of 

 this fact by taking the seeds and subjecting them to the action of 

 heat and moisture. The testa will be seen to swell out, force 

 open the micropyle, and the radicle, or embryo, with one end 

 charred by the heat, shoots out and completes the illusion. But 

 this spurious worm or maggot is large enough to be seen by the 

 naked eye, and is, I think, hardly likely to deceive a skilled 

 observer. There are, however, a very considerable number of 

 other bodies, which have been described as worms or parasites, as, 

 e.g., shreds of blood and tissue detached from the gums and 

 sides of the mouth by the hot fomentations ; small fragments of 

 vegetable, and even of mineral substances. A typical illustration 

 of the latter is furnished by one of my correspondents. " If," he 

 writes, " a tooth be broken on extraction after acute toothache, the 

 sphacelated pulp will often be seen to occupy the nerve-cavity and 

 root-canals. It forms an ashy grey, tapering, thread-like structure, 

 not unlike a worm in shape, and it is just possible that it may 

 assume the appearance of a worm and have been mistaken for 

 one." 



Among vegetable matters, those more frequently mistaken for 

 worms or parasites are shreds of fibro-cellular tissue, awns of 

 grasses, pith, the carpellary segment of the orange, and, as Dr. 

 Fraser reminds me, " a cleverly-cut fragment of a sod of earth, 

 and small pieces of the vascular bundle of a fern." " I have 

 seen," he says, " these and other substances palmed off on my 

 patients by a notorious impostor, a reputed tooth-ache curer, who 

 trades upon the credulity of those who are ready to believe in 

 Faith-healing." 



With regard to the specimen which I brought to the notice of 



