332 



Notices respect mg New Books, 



the extremities are as much more frequently its principal stiS 

 first seat, as in the itch. 



" As to the causes of the appearance of the guinea-worm, 

 and the mode in which it is generated, I -must confess that 

 I have no account that I could venture to offer here. 



" Indiftcrent parts of the world, the water drank is ac- 

 cused of occasioning intestinal worms, as the taenia in Swit- 

 zerland, and the taenia and the terctes m the West Indies ; 

 where, likev.ise, I have heard the mucilaginous vegetables 

 eaten assigned as a cause of the fref|uent appearance of 

 worms. In Russia, there is a worm, the lumbricus mill- 

 tensis, common near swampy grounds. In Russia and in 

 Siberia, in the same situations, the taenia infernalis prevails. 

 But, after what has been here stated, we cannot bring the 

 water, drank on board tlie Minerva, or at Bombay, to ac- 

 count for the guinea-worm which prevailed : in fact, the 

 water came from different and distant quarters, Bombay, 

 Cevlon, and Madras. Besides, the officers of the 88th, 

 and theartilierv, drank the same watery and escaped. 



" No caseof sruinea-worm had been known among either 

 the Lascars or European sailors in the Minerva, when the 

 66th and 88th embarked iu her. 



" I have good reason to think that the spreading of the 

 guinea-worm mav be stopped, whenever it does appear. 

 'I'he means which we adopted appeared to succeed. Ex- 

 treme attention to cleanliness is iiidispensably necessary. 



'' In India the native doctors are much more successful 

 in crctting- out the vvorms, than Europeans. After long 

 fcefing with their lingers, for the body of the worm, they 

 make an incision as nearly as thev can judge over its mid- 

 dle, and, pulling the worm by a duplicaturfi of it, draw out 

 both ends of the worm at one time. I have often endea- 

 voured to imitate this practice. My sense of toueh was not 

 ?o delicate, and did not guide me so correctly as it did the 

 Hindoo doctors : but I always found that when, on cutting 



down 



