Animal Pnntsifi's. 473 



tissues and supports vital processes generally, but is the source of 

 animal lieat, just as tlie coal burnt in the furnace is the source of 

 physical heat. Vital processes are properly sustained by the tissues 

 being sufficiently nourished with suitable food. Intestinal worms, by 

 feeding upon the blood and nutrient juices in tlie intestines of their 

 host, impov^erish it, and deprive it of that nutritious material which 

 is required to repair tissue-waste that is continuously going (Ui in its 

 body. When the metabolism of the food is perverted, the animal is 

 practically subjected to starvation. It becomes thin from the fixed 

 tissue elements being consumed to keep up the vital processes, and 

 the greater the demand on these tissues the greater the loss of weight 

 and strength. 



The worms fix themselves to the walls of the intestines by special 

 organs of attachment, and imbibe the lymph and blood of their host. 

 In the lower animals, in some cases, their presence is never even 

 suspected, because they so little disturb the health of their host, but 

 in human subjects they always more or less provoke definite 

 symptoms, and in some rare instances seriously threaten the lives of 

 their victims. 



Intestinal worms are common in all animals, in all parts of the 

 globe. They play some important part in the economy of their hosts, 

 and it is, perhaps, a general provision of nature that they should not 

 endanger their lives, although at times this provision is departed 

 from. 



Historically, their existence dates from the days of Moses, but the 

 ancients were ignox-ant of the places of their development. They 

 were thought capable of arising spontaneously. There is no such 

 thing as spontaneous development. All creatures develop from an 

 ovum (egg), originating in the body of a parent. The life history of 

 round worms is so complex, and their manner of reaching, in minute 

 form, the bowels of their hosts, by means of ingested food and water, 

 so various, that it is no wonder, since they could not be traced until 

 mature stages, spontaneous origin was ascribed to them. As regards 

 treatment, intestinal worms differ from lung worms. Lung worms 

 are not easily expelled. Intestinal worms, by judicious procedure, can 

 be compelled to forsake their hosts, by the use of suitable drugs. A 

 purgative should first be given to clear out the contents of the 

 intestinal tract, and all food should be withheld for some nine or ten 

 hours, and the vermifuge administered. When given with due 

 precautions the specific drug has a chance of making its action felt on 

 the parasite. 



