56 



Purgative Enemas. 



Whilst almost any fluid administered as an enema excites 

 peristalsis, and so causes purgation, certain agents with a 

 definite purgative action are sometimes given in this way, 

 as a treatment for worms. Such are soap, common salt, sugar - 

 and-water, glycerine, sulphur-water and aloes ; and they will 

 be dealt with under the heading '"' Rectal Treatment." 



Anthelmintics Proper or Vermicides. 



This group includes all medicinal agents which are believed 

 to kill the " worms/' Nearly all are of vegetable origin 1 , 

 none are reliable as regards Oxyuris, and few are free from 

 danger. 



Ineffective Vermicides. 



A number of agents, which have been recommended as 

 vermicides, appear to have very little, if any, action upon any 

 worms ; and in this category may be reckoned raw onions 

 and garlic ; bitters, such as husks of walnuts, which were 

 recommended by Hippocrates, ox-bile, quassia and cascarilla ; 

 Calamintha, Dippel's Oel, Flores^ (sic) Verbasci (Kuechen- 

 meister), and Ghatti gummi. Others, of which Chenopodium, 

 Butea Frondosa, wormseed and wormwood are only a few 

 representatives, destroy Ascaris lumbricoides, but not Oxyuris. 

 While powdered tin, Filix mas, Granati Radix, Cousso, Bray era 

 Anthelmintica, Musenna, and many other drugs, act only on 

 the tapeworm. 



1 J. SCHAEFFER, in Dissertatio only occasionally) as anthelmintics 

 inauguralis medico, sistens Anthel- may be mentioned : Ginger, car- 

 mintica Eegni Vegetabilis, Altdorf, damon, oleum olivae, gratiola, 

 1784, reviews the vegetable anthel- verbena, piper nigrum, cubebs, 

 mintics which enjoyed a reputation valerian, saccharum, triticum re- 

 in his day, or had done so previously. pens, spigelia, scammony, jalap, 

 He gives a complete list of them, cinchona, coffee, tobacco, capsicum, 

 occupying 85 pages, including an nux vomica, gentian, coriander, 

 appendix, and divides them into 24 carum carui, sambucus, scilla, aloes, 

 Classes (Botanical). The informa- cinnamon, camphor, rhubarb, ruta, 

 tion he gives on each drug is fully quassia, euphorbia, amygdalus, 

 representative of the state of know- caryophyllum, papaver somniferum 

 ledge at that time ; but there are (opium), gamboge, staphisagria, aco- 

 very few which he himself is nite, helleborus, mentha piperita, 

 able to recommend as anthel- sinapis, glycyrrhiza, orange, san- 

 mintics. His list includes a number tonica, anthemis, serpentaria, pinus 

 of plants which do not now figure sylvestris, croton tiglium, ricinus, 

 in any pharmacopoeia, but amongst colocynth, cannabis indica, savin, 

 those which are still used (some veratrum, filix mas, myrrha. 



