Worms* 4 \ 



Calomel may be administered with the greatest safety, provided scru- 

 pulous attention be paid to thoso circumstances, which are amply de- 

 tailed, under the head of The Use and Abuse of Purgatives. 



But whether Calomel be given as an Alterative, or dependance be 

 placed upon Box Wood, Savin, Tobacco, or any other of the Ve- 

 g^etable productions, which have been much relied upon heretofore^ 

 for the cure of Worms, it will be found, in all cases, that the use 

 of Purging' Physic is indispensably necessary. And I am perfectly 

 satisfied (inasmuch as it is the custom to physic Horses after a course 

 of these celebrated Vermifuges) that in the greater part of those 

 cases, where the cure has been attributed to their efficacy, it ought 

 rather to have been placed to the account of the Purgative alone. 

 For the circumstance which has been relied upon, as the infallible 

 criterion of the efficacy of such remedies, namely, that of finding dead 

 Worms mixed with the Foeces that are voided, is by no means a 

 proof of the fact in question ; as with the exception of the Bot, all 

 the Worms found in the Stomach or Bowels of the Horse, die al- 

 most at the very instant they are exposed, to the temperature of the 

 external atmosphere. Insomuch that it frequently happens, in cases 

 where Horses void myriads of the Ascaris (Needle Worm) that it is 

 extremely difficult to detect them in the Foeces, on account of 

 thejr resemblance to the fibres of Hay, unless they be examined 

 at the very moment they are discharged, when, in some instances, 

 the Foeces of the Animal will appear almost alive, as it were, 

 from their numbers. So that I should feel inclined to doubt the 

 pretended efficacy, of these celebi-ated Specifics, in the cure of 

 Worms, in all cases where the use of purging Physic had been dis- 

 pensed with ; unless I were to witness (what I never have been able 



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