HUMAN WORMS. Ill 



§. LXXI. The oviparous animals, particularly 

 birds, are very subject to worms ; these increase 

 or grow insulated from all communication with 

 their mother. 



It consequently seems that worms in them are in- 

 nate, and that for this reason, they may lilvewise be 

 so in man, since nature is uniform in her great ope- 

 rations. 



This objection would certainly have great 

 weight if all that Block affirms were true, tliat is 

 to say,(6l) that in most animals, there are worms 

 peculiar to them. We have already observed 

 that we cannot strictly admit that there are v.orms 

 peculiar to each class of animals :[G2) but that there 

 are merely some varieties of them. 



On the other hand it may be said that in ovipa- 

 rous animals, birds for instance and fishes, we meet 

 with worms proper to each species. In truth, the 

 fasciola, or small band fligidaj is common to fish- 

 es aud birds ;;_63) we find in these animals indif- 

 ferently the gordiiiSj{Q-^) the ca2nichoii,{Q)5) the 

 echinorinchuSy[6Q) the planaria cilindrica,[Qj) the 

 taeniae[^%) and the worm named chaos ivfnsori- 

 us miicosiis.[Q9) It is natural therefore that the 

 eggs of these worms should, witliout distinction, be 

 introduced into the animal body with its food, and 

 that in man they should particularly be insinu- 

 ated with the mother's milk. (70) Rosensteiii 

 says,(71) that with impure water v.c swallow an 

 immense quantity of very small worms, and that 

 it may be from this cause that many mi^Herable peo- 



