/ 



VERMINOUS DISEASES. SOS 



of calomel should be given ; otherwise we may lose 

 the patient before the amalgam has time to operate.* 

 Sometimes we find the patient in a lethargic stupor, 

 and the action of the stomach, of course, suspended; 

 at other times, the canal is in a state so debilitat- 

 ed and relaxed, that the powder passes undissolv- 

 ed ; in neitber of these cases will this preparation 

 produce any effect. Worms, killed by tin, or its 

 amalgam, are never discharged entire, but are ei- 

 ther partially or wholly digested. " I had under 

 my care a boy, of about three years, who had the 

 usual symptoms of worms. I gave him tin to no 

 purpose. In the course of six months every kind 

 of anthelmintic was tried iu vain. At length I 

 gave him a scruple of calomel, and before it operat- 

 ed, injected the smoke of tobacco, till it passed by 

 his mouth. Daring the operation of the medicine, 

 which was very severe, he discharged one of the 

 teretes in a spiral coil, like a bean vine, which had 

 twined round a small twig; it was incapable of be- 

 ing extended to a straight line, and had obviously 

 grown in that form. 



''\ presume that it must have been lodged in the 

 appendix vermiformis. A worm in this situation, 

 sometimes, and I believe generally, proves fatal. 

 This is the only instance, within my knowledge^ 

 of its being dislodged.'' 



This amalgam of tin, for v/hich we are indebt- 

 ed to Dr. Fisher^ is a safe and valuable remedy, 



* And this will more certainly save tlie patient, if the calo- 

 mel be accompanied with a decoction of the spis^elia marilandi' 

 CO. A. T. 



