4il Worms, 



fectly applicable to the subject ; and therefore, I cannot help coa- 

 sidering his proposal of administering- the Bots artificially, (as a 

 Medicine to Horses) by means of their Ova, (qualified as that 

 proposition is) as proceeding from ideas, much too visionary, for 

 any purpose of practical utility. For although it be true, that the 

 great Linnoeus has said concerning the insect, which infests the heads 

 of children " Rodendo Caput exciat ichores apud puerulos voraces, 

 incarcerates indeque strumosos, sicque preservat a Coryza, tussi, 

 coecitate, epilepsia, &c. yet, no ojne I believe, would seriously think of 

 proposing, that the heads of Children should be purposely furnished 

 with such loathsome vermin, by way of preventing the attack of these 

 formidable complaints ; unless indeed it could be proved, that the 

 diseases in question, prevail less in the abodes of filth and poverty,^ 

 than in the habitations of the cleanly and affluent. 



Nor can I by any means agree with Mr. Clarke in his opinion, 

 ihatthe worms in children, are wholesome to them in a certain quan- 

 tity, by constantly irritating the membranes of the intestines, and 

 thus preventing the access of worse disorders ; although I consider 

 it exceedingly probable that the morbid , secretions of the mucous 

 coat of the intestines, which always more or less, accompany the 

 existence of Worms, have effects infinitely more deleterious, than 

 the Worms themselves have, on the system of 'the dhiM. Further, I 

 cannot lielp looking- upon Mr. Clai'ke's comparison, of the effects of 

 the stimulus of Bots in the Stomach, to that of a pei'petual issue or 

 blister, as carrying the argument of analogy, much too far. '' We 

 often see (says he) a formidable disease quickly removed by blis- 

 tering the skin, or by irritating the mucous membrane of the stomach 

 or intestines, through a vomit or a purge," Again '' irritating tlie 



