160 ANIMAL PARASITES. 



Thompson recommends, and in a dose of gj ; but triturated 

 with gj of castor oil, or 1 2 drops of croton oil, 2 3 yolks of 

 eggs, and gj of honey; and to give it in 2 3 portions in the 

 course of 1 1-^ hour. For children, half the quantity. Thus 

 given, it is certainly one of the most energetic remedies for tape- 

 worm, and justly merits fame in those cases in which pomegranate 

 root has produced no result. 



Clossius employs turpentine only as a test for the presence of 



a tape-worm. 



Method witfy Kousso. 



Kousso = Flores Kousso = Kosso = Habi, i.e., the dried and 

 powdered flowers of Bray era anthelminthica. This remedy, 

 which is making a great noise at present, is adulterated in 

 many ways. J. Clarus found Kousso obtained from Jobst to 

 be adulterated with sawdust. I have already indicated that 

 the sawdust might be probably the dust of a medicine for tape- 

 worms, and, indeed, of the coarser stalks and twigs of the 

 Brayera. It is still more probable, however, that these woody 

 fibres or chips might come from the root of Verbascum Ternacha, 

 which, as well as the leaves of Jasminum floribundam (Herba 

 Zelim), is as is well known, often added to Kousso, and is even 

 administered alone, in doses of 70 grains, as a remedy against 

 Taenice. In other respects, it acts as a pretty strong narcotic on 

 lower animals, as, for example, when thrown into water it 

 stupifies fishes. For these reasons I should in this case say, not 

 so much that the agent is adulterated, as that it is often adminis- 

 tered in combination with other Abyssinian remedies for tape- 

 worm. According to my experiments, even the thick T. crassi- 

 collis of the cat died very soon in white of egg mixed with a 

 decoction of Kousso flowers. The T&nice were dead within an 

 hour. The dose of the powder of Kousso is ^vj to gj. For my 

 own part, I have always been more or less unlucky with this 

 remedy, which, in the ordinary mode of administration, shares all 

 the defects of the other remedies for tapeworms, and easily pro- 

 duces sickness and violent pains in the intestines. In my own 

 experience, I have generally seen the worm expelled in innu- 

 merable fragments after the use of this remedy or its preparations. 

 I have only seen larger or smaller portions of the worm, or, at 

 the utmost, the worm up to the neck expelled by it ; but have 

 never found the head. In one case 1 certainly detected frag- 

 ments of tapeworm in the evacuations for three months. Once 



