VERMINOUS DISEASES. 16» 



For this reason we may eall the symptoms, pro- 

 duced by the presence of worms, either partial or 



common. 



§ LXXV. Children and persons of a feeble 

 constitution and lax fibre are most predisposed to 

 worms. 



Children are most frequently tormented by as- 

 carides vermiculares and lumbricoides ; adults, on 

 the contrary, are subject to taeniae and vesicular 



worms. 



In nervous fevers and other asthenic diseases, 

 both acute and chronic, the complication of worms is 

 very frequent, especially the tricocephili, as we see 

 in the history of verminous epidemics. 



[^Verminous epidemic is incorrect language, be^ 

 cause it implies the existence of a morbific cause 

 which is inadequate to produce the effect ascribed 

 to its agency : at least there is no evidence that in- 

 testinal worms ever have produced an epedemie 

 malady. ^ 



In the first place, we cannot imagine that most 

 of the inhabitants of a populous city, or of an ex- 

 tensive territory, ever had, at any one time, a suf- 

 ficient number of worms to occasion a sickness of 

 any sort ; and secondly, if we could suppose these 

 worms so to exist, they would not produce an epe- 

 demie disease, but a considerable number of differ- 

 ent diseases, all occurring simultaneously. That 

 certain causes may sometimes arise lending both to 

 generate disease and to increase intestinal worms, 

 cannot indeed be doubted ; some of these are the 



