NEMATODA 249 



in 1873. From Dr Evans's statement, made at the coroner's 

 inquest, the sole cause of death appeared to be due to pressure 

 on the windpipe by a worm lodged in the gullet. Sometimes 

 there is cerebral disturbance, attended with general restlessness 

 and convulsive twitchings during sleep. Thus, Dr Woodman 

 has recorded a serious case of convulsions arising from lumbri- 

 coid worms, in which, however, a cure was effected by expul- 

 sion of the worms. An anonymous writer in the ' Medical 

 Gazette ' records a case of epilepsy from this cause, whilst 

 another writer in the same journal (1839) mentions an instance 

 where two lumbrici and one tapeworm were associated in the 

 production of similar phenomena. But a much more striking 

 case is also given (anonymously) in the ' Gazette ' for 1874 (p. 

 415), where a single lumbricus caused the bearer to be a lunatic 

 for eight years. The victim suffered from cataleptic fits, which 

 lasted for two or three weeks at a time. M. Petrequin, in his 

 ' Traite Pratique,' records two cases of amaurosis in young girls 

 produced by lumbrici. A fatal case is recorded by Petrenz, 

 where 200 worms produced enteritis, and another fatal case is 

 given by Roger from perforation (1848). Cases of perforation 

 are also given by Young, by Blair (1861), by Mondiere (1839), 

 by Buchner (1851), by Sheppard (1861), and by Luschka 

 (1854), the worms in this last-mentioned case occupying the 

 cavity of the pleura. Cases of severe irritation affecting the 

 genito- urinary organs are given by Dreyfus, Buckingham, and 

 others ; and one or two instances are reported where these 

 worms have been discharged from several parts of the body 

 (Neilson, 1833). I may add that the third fasciculus of a work 

 illustrating the collection of morbid anatomy in the Army 

 Medical Museum at Chatham gives a case of lumbrici occupy- 

 ing the biliary ducts and gall-bladder. I find, moreover, two 

 additional cases of perforation of the small intestine, one of 

 which appeared in the 'London Medical Gazette' (1827) and 

 the other in the ' Lancet' (1836). 



During the Franco-German war Dr Reginald Pierson, as he 

 afterwards informed me, removed a lumbricus from an abscess 

 formed in the abdominal parietes of a soldier. But amongst 

 the most curious cases (illustrating the wandering habits of these 

 parasites) are those severally described by Barwell (1857), 

 Williams, Prichard, and the Messrs Stockbridge. In Harwell's 

 case an Ascaris was expelled from a child who had swallowed 

 the brass " eye " of a lady's dress. Through the circular loop of 



