35 



nearly all children's ailments were, for this reason, considered 

 to be in some way connected with ' ' worms V The complaint 

 is, however, not by any means confined to them, but may 

 occur at any age, and is, indeed, fairly frequent in old people. 

 Out of 226 bodies in which GBIBBOHM found Oxyuris, at Kiel 

 Pathological Institute, the youngest was five weeks old and 

 the oldest 82 years. The same observer discovered Oxyuris in 

 the youngest children who were infested with worms 2 , when no 

 other parasite was present 3 , and thus proved how extremely 

 common the complaint is, especially in very young children, 

 in whom its existence may be entirely unsuspected. It has 

 been stated by many observers, that, as a general rule, the 

 older the patient, the more obstinate the disease. 



Sex. 



There does not appear to be any marked difference between 

 the sexes as regards liability to threadworm disease. The 

 statistics collected by GBIBBOHM during five years, show that 

 amongst 149 adults found with this parasite, 94 were men and 

 55 women. These figures point to a slight preponderance of 

 the male sex. GRIBBOHM, however, does not wish to deduce 

 general conclusions from the comparatively small amount of 

 material from which he collected his figures ; indeed, he inclines 

 to the opinion that women must be more liable to the disease 

 than men, on the grounds that women mix more with children 

 than men do, and so are more likely to be infected by the 

 former, and further, that women are in the habit of tasting 

 food before it is properly cooked. Older authorities were 

 unanimous in stating that women were more susceptible 4 than 



1 " Prioribus temporibus omnes 3 The presence of Oxyuris even 

 fere infantium morbi a vermibus in newly- born children has been 

 deducebantur." (HELLER, I., De maintained : " M. Gaetzer, dans 

 Helminthiasi, Berolini, 1838, p. 3.) un ouvrage sur les maladies du 



2 Gribbohm's observations foetus, a pretendu que la presence 

 covered the period from 1 Novem- des vers intestinaux dans le foetus 

 ber, 1872, to 1 April, 1877, and 1,117 humain etait fort commune. On a 

 corpses came under observation, plusiers fois rencontre des hel- 

 Oxyuris was found in several minthes dans les premieres selles 

 children under nine months, whose des nouveau-nes." (FIDELIN, P., 

 intestines contained no other para- op. cit., pp. 37, 38.) 



sites. (GRIBBOHM, H., Zur Statistik 4 " Frequentiores etiam sunt 



menschlicher Entozoen, Kiel, 1877, vermes sexui sequiore, quam mascu- 

 p. 6.) lino, quia sexus sequior magis de 



