INTESTINAL WORMS. 



239 



are here represented, from the splendid work of 

 Bremser. 



Intestinal worms. 



That insects are, in some rare cases, introduced 

 into the human stomach has been more than once 

 proved ; though the greater number of the accounts 

 of such facts in medical books are too inaccurate 

 to be trusted.* But one extraordinary case has 

 been completely authenticated, both by medical men 

 and competent naturalists; and is published in the 

 Dublin Transactions, by Dr. Pickells, of Cork.f 

 Mary Riordan, aged 28, had been much affected by 

 the death of her mother, and at one of her many 

 visits to the grave seems to have partially lost her 

 senses, having been found lying there on the morn- 

 ing of a winter's day, and having been exposed to 

 heavy rain during the night. When she was about 

 fifteen, two popular Catholic priests had died, and she 

 was told by some old women that if she would drink 



* See Good's Nosologia, Helminthia Alvi ; and Study of 

 Med., vol. i. p. 336. 



f Trans, of Assoc. Phys. in Ireland, iv. vii. and v., p. 177, 

 8vo. Dublin, 1824-1828. 



