PREFACE 



OF THE FRENCH TRANSLATORS. 



Perhaps on no subject has there been so much writ- 

 ten as on the diseases arising from worms. Block, in his 

 treatise, which is one of the best, merely describes as a 

 naturalist, the worms of the human body, and he has mul- 

 tiplied their species without end. 



Jltulnj is lost in a labyrinth of hypotheses ; and others 

 seem to have written merely to proclaim their success, and 

 to make known their specifics. The celebrated Brera, 

 professor of clinical medicine in the University of Pavia, 

 known by several excellent medical publications, which 

 have placed him among the first physicians who have 

 done honour to Europe, has recently analyzed the diseas- 

 es from worms in a work entitled, Lezioni medico practiche 

 sopra i principali vermi del corpo mnano vivente, e Lecosi delle 

 malattie verminose. Having no good distinct treatise in 

 our language on verviinous diseases, we have thought our- 

 selves usefidly employed in translating his work into 

 French. This treatise, to which tlie author gives the mod- 

 est title of Lectures, claims the attention of physicians and 

 naturalists. Tlic first part contains the natural history of 

 worms ; in the second, the autlior treats of their origin in 

 the human system ; in the third, he speaks of verminous 

 affections, both local and syni| athotic. Lastly, the fourth 

 Lecture is devoted to tlie dificrcnt methods of cure. 



This, in a few words, is tlie plan of the author. Fur- 

 ther, Professor Brera gives us, in his preface, an account 

 of the method he has adopted ; little then is left for us lo 



