39 



practically without exception. So much is this the case, that 

 at one time it was believed that some mysterious connection 

 existed between '*' scrofula " and threadworms. 



VIII. SYMPTOMS. 



Threadworms may be, and often are, present, even in large 

 numbers, without having given rise to such symptoms as can 

 readily be ascribed to them 1 , and this is specially apt to occur 

 in children. The latter may sometimes be looked upon by 

 their parents merely as a little delicate. In other instances 

 such children are often retarded in growth or in mental devel- 

 opment, pale, peevish, restless, shy and irritable ; but none 

 of these signs rouses suspicion of the real cause of their malady, 

 though it is recognised that all is not quite as it should be. 



The symptoms of threadworm disease proper are extremely 

 numerous and varied 2 . They may be divided into local and 

 constitutional. The local symptoms include all the morbid 

 phenomena which are directly traceable to, and often merely 

 the mechanical effects of, the presence of the worms. The 

 constitutional symptoms are those which manifest them- 

 selves more or less at a distance from the seat of the trouble, 

 and are, probably, all induced by the stimulation which the 

 parasites produce reflexly in the nervous system 3 . It has 

 been said that this is the most irritating of all the helminths 

 that attack man 4 . 



1 " Cependant il y a des cas dans peregrinum est symptoma, tamque 

 iesquels les individus, atteints de daemoniacum, quod vermes pro- 

 ces vers, n'ont jamais eprouve le ducere non possent." (HEMONT, 

 moindre accident ; cela paraitrait J. M., op. cit., p. 27.) 



dependre du siege qu'ils affectent 3 " La plupart proviennent du 



dans rintestin." ( COLIN, P. D., derangement de la digestion ; les 



Aper$u sur le diagnostic des affections autres tiennent a 1'alteration sym- 



vermineuses du tube digestif. Paris, pathique des autres fonctions." 



1837, p. 16.) (PERGAUD, P. P., Dissertation sur 



2 " Les vers . . . s'annoncent les vers intestinaux, Paris, 1830, 

 . . . quelquefois par des symp- p. 15.) 



tomes qui sont nombreux, variables, 4 " C'est le plus incommode de 



fallacieux, et souvent terribles, c'est tous les helminthes de l'homme." 



ce que Pecchlinus (obs. 65, liv. 1), (DUJARDIN, M. F., op. cit., p. 



exprime ainsi : nullium dit-il, tarn 139.) 



