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efficacy of the small doses, which constitute one of the main 

 principles of Homoeopathy. In the light of such striking 

 results the possibility of very minute quantities of a drug 

 producing marked physiological effects on living tissue becomes 

 a scientific fact. . 



The Specific and after. 



The tincture never fails to destroy, or expel, the thread- 

 worms. But it must not be imagined that I regard this effect 

 alone as constituting a complete " cure " of the patient, 

 whether the latter be child or adult. My aims in treatment 

 are more ambitious. Every medical man will agree that 

 drugs possessing specific properties can do no more than relieve 

 or remove specific symptoms, and the presence of worms is 

 only a symptom, if the word be taken in its widest sense. 

 But even specific drugs cannot possibly, by themselves, recall 

 the entire organism of the sufferer to the smooth path of 

 healthy evolution, from which it has more or less strayed. 

 This must be the ultimate object of all curative treatment ; 

 and until this has been achieved, the physician is not entitled 

 to consider his patient cured. 



Constitutional Treatment, where no other Malady Exists. 



I have already indicated that the constitutional conditions 

 which predispose to, or complicate, threadworm disease 

 sometimes take the form of such definite maladies as tuber- 

 culosis, Blight's disease, diabetes, and the like. Now it is 

 obviously impossible even to outline, far less to describe in 

 detail in such a work as this, the methods of treatment I 

 adopt in complicated cases of this kind. A full account 

 must be reserved for another place. Such treatment as I 

 outline below is intended to correct the conditions of debility, 

 commonly spoken of as functional, which co-exist without 

 exception with threadworm disease, but cannot themselves 

 be described as distinct diseases. The symptoms of such 

 general debility are familiar to every one, and include pallor, 

 anaemia, indigestion, loss of appetite, sleeplessness or disturbed 

 sleep, disinclination for effort, rapid exhaustion, palpitation, 

 nervousness, retarded physical or mental development in the 

 case of children, etc. 



