158 VERMINOUS DISEASES. 



France which was found to have heen occasioned 

 by worms. (69) They are sometimes the cause of ma- 



jtaroxysra had lasfcd three hours, ^\ hen lie was made to respire 

 ammonia, which aflbrded relief : the patient said that before this 

 attack, he felt a pricking and something move in his stomach. 

 Notwithstanding the entreaties of M. Houzelot, he could not 

 induce the family of the patient to follow the use of antispas- 

 modics, on which the first physicians insisted, with anthelmin- 

 tics. February 23, the boy's life was in imminent danger; the 

 symptoms were so much aggravated, the blindness, deafness, 

 aphonia, temporary mania, protrusion of the tongue, and the 

 geTieral convulsions, were nut the most alarming of them. The 

 contraction of the muscles of the spine continued three hours : 

 the mouth was closely shut, and the masticating muscles were 

 so contracted that it was necessary to use a tube to get down a 

 few spoonfuls of a composing draught. The volatile alkali was 

 now used without success ; the sufferer had taken nothing for four 

 days, and was ready to expire. 



On the 24th, a consultation was agreed on; that the disease 

 arose from worms, appeared so evidently that a strong decoc- 

 tion of artemisia semen contra, of the fuciis helminthocorton, 

 Linn, and of uhsiinthium, with the addition of orange flower 

 ■water, an infusion of the flowers of tiliaor linden tree, and pills 

 made of suhmuriate of mercurj' and semen-contra, were imme- 

 diately prescribed. No remission of symptoms on the 25th; 

 26th, symptoms less violent; two stools, with two lumbrici— 

 general and partial convulsions. 



On the 27th, liiteen very large living lumbrici were discharg- 

 ed. There is a marked diminution of the symptoms, and an ob- 

 vious improvement; in seven days, fifty -five living and twenty- 

 eight dead worms Avere voided. On the Tth of March, a new 

 order of symptoms took place. The belly became the seat of the 

 disease, the musclesof the abdomen were so violently convulsed 

 that they rose and fell alternately at least six inches. This 

 state continued t!)rce hours. On feeling the abdomen, a pretty 

 large tumour, hard and moveable, was discovered in the left iliac 



