114 THE ORIGIN OF 



other asthenic diseases, the patient is exempt from 

 them after the recovery of his health. 



The mucosities and lymph which abound in 

 weak bodies favour the development of worms by 

 serving to nourish them. These humours do not 

 possess life, as Hunter supposed, and which the 

 illustrious Bliimenbach has so well refuted. (8S) 



4. Worms once developed in the human body, 

 increase and multiply in the ordinary manner of the 

 other more perfect animals, because they possess 

 the genital organs of the two sexes ; and as in each 

 body and at all times, the circumstances which fa- 

 vour their development do not always take place; 

 a great number of eggs are evacuated before they 

 are unfolded ; hence it was requisite that the num- 

 ber of female worms of the intestines should ex- 

 ceed the males, and that the quantity of eggs should 

 supply the number lost, otherwise their species 

 might become extinct. 



The pike, carp, tench, and other fishes which 

 we daily eat, deposite great numbers of eggs in fresh 

 water ; all these eggs do not hatch ; many are de- 

 stroyed by other fishes, and fail from circumstances 

 unfavourable to their multiplication ; these species 

 are nevertheless perpetuated, because in the great 

 quantity of eggs deposited, several are developed 

 and grow. 



Nature is therefore uniform in her operations, 

 with regard to animals subjected to similar vicissi- 

 tudes. 



