6/2 THE ANIMAL PARASITES OF MAN 



is prescribed with honey as an electuary. The method recommended 

 by Fowler 1 is without doubt too detailed ; he prescribes before the 

 treatment two to three to four days' rest in bed ; special diet, tablets of 

 cascara sagrada three times daily, on the fourth day senna infusion, 

 and then to give the extractum filicis maris in capsules in four doses, 

 to be taken every quarter of an hour. 



Under Jaquet's 2 direction, Kraft has prepared an amorphous acid 

 from the fern root extract which is designated filmaron. As a vermi- 

 fuge the drug is prescribed for children of 2 to 5 years of age in 

 doses up to o'2 to 0*3 grm., for children of from 8 to 12 years in doses 

 up to 0*5 to 07 grm., and for adults up to 07 to ro grm., so as to expel 

 the parasites. Bodenstein 3 gives the filmaron oil introduced into 

 commerce by the firm of Boehringer (one part filmaron and nine parts 

 castor oil) in still greater dosage, either fasting or, in the case of 

 sensitive patients, one hour after a cup of tea ; he gives peppermint 

 tablets against possible nausea. Brieger 4 tested the preparation in 

 twenty-three cases ; in twenty-one of these he prescribed it as an ether- 

 castor oil mixture, and in two as capsules. The action always took 

 effect in from two to five hours, and only in three cases were 

 unpleasant after-effects in the shape of colic observed ; in sixteen 

 cases the result was positive, in seven negative. 



The attempts made by Goldmann 5 to prepare from the bark of 

 Musenna abvssinica, a plant of the order Mvrsinacea', indigenous to 

 Persia, the active substance, namely sebirol, have shown that when 

 this is given alone it certainly acts as a vermicide, but not as a 

 vermifuge ; on the other hand, the results of a combination of sebirol 

 with thymol and salicylates were surprisingly good ; this mixture has 

 been introduced into commerce as taeniol, in the shape of pastilles 

 prepared with chocolate for children. The method of giving taeniol 

 is as follows : On the day before the administration a light diet and 

 thorough purging with calomel are ordered ; and then on the day of 

 the treatment itself, after a breakfast consisting of a cup of tea, in the 

 case of adults, thirteen to fifteen taeniol pastilles are taken in some red 

 wine at intervals of ten minutes respectively. In the middle of this 

 treatment an interval of some hours is interposed. After the pastilles 

 have been taken a calomel purge is again given. The results obtained 

 by Liermberger 6 are sufficiently encouraging to be put to further test. 



Fischer 7 has tested in some of his cases extracts of some new 

 species of fern root ; he employed the extract from the rhizomes of 



1 Fowler, B-it. M*t. Jonrn., 1906. * Jaquet, Therap. Monatsh., 1904. 



8 Bodenstein, ll'ien. vied. Presse, 1906. 4 Brieger, " Therap. d. Gegenwart.," 1905. 



5 Goldmann, Wien.kiin. IVi'ckensihr., 1505. 



6 Liermberger, Berl.klin. li'oc/temc/ir., 1005. ' Fischer, he. cit. 



