VERMINOUS DISEASES. 213 



did not take them without the greatest reluctance, 

 aud to sret rid of the business at once, swallowed 

 the whole quantity as a single dose. He was im- 

 mediately delivered of the entire taenia. 



Some time after the same physician prescribed 

 for a woman, thirty drops of this oil to be taken in 

 the morning, and forty more of them in the after- 

 noon ; she was soon delivered of a worm twelve 

 metres long.(103) 



The petroleum is a very stimulating and heat- 

 ing remedy : it is given in combination with some 

 syrup, or with other remedies possessing a stimu- 

 lant antispasmodic power,(106) in the dose of ten, 

 twenty, or thirty drops. Vicat has advanced by 

 little and little to the dose of one hundred drops ; 

 many practitioners advise the external use of it in 

 cases of pains of the abdomen occasioned by worms. 

 For this purpose the whole region of the abdomen 

 is rubbed with the petroleum alone or mixed with 

 ox^s gall, as Mellin advises : in this way it is more 

 penetrating and at the same time more active. 



^ CXXXIV. Muriate of Soda. The stimu- 

 lating effect of this salt facilitates the digestion of 

 food, dissolves and attenuates the mucus of the 

 stomach and intestines, excites the bowels to dis- 

 charge their contents, opposes the putrefaction of 

 the animal parts, and gives tone to the cohesion of 

 the fibres. 



These properties have not only rendered this 

 salt necessary for the seasoning of our daily food, 

 but also very useful in many asthenic diseases, and 



