250 PARASITES OF MAN 



this eye, used as a toy, the Ascaris had partly thrust its'body, and 

 becoming thus strangulated, it probably perished before it was 

 evacuated. In Prichard's case (1859) one or two lumbrici had 

 similarly trapped themselves in the eyes of buttons swallowed 

 by the patient, and one worm, not contented with a single 

 strangulation, had succeeded in passing its body through two 

 buttons. In 1842 Mr T. G. Stockbridge gave a similar case, 

 in which he, not inaptly, spoke of these " hooks and eyes " as 

 constituting a new remedy or " worm-trap " for lumbricus, 

 and singularly enough, a namesake (W. Stockbridge), in the 

 succeeding year, also recorded a like instance of the " mechanical 

 expulsion of worms " by metallic buttons. Again, a third 

 correspondent in the ' Boston Journal/ under the initials A. M., 

 spoke of an open-topped thimble as constituting another new 

 " worm-trap," whilst he gave a case of lumbrici penetrating 

 " metallic suspensor buttons." There is also the case reported by 

 Williams, who, at a meeting of the Boston Society for Medical 

 Improvement, exhibited "a lumbricus with a dress-hook 

 attached" (1857). Lastly, another lumbricus, trapped in the 

 same way, may be seen in the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons at Edinburgh. 



Owing to the presence of a peculiar irritating vapour which 

 is given out by these lumbricoids, particularly when fresh, 

 several observers have experienced curious symptoms. Thus, 

 Miram on two occasions, when examining A. megalocephala, was 

 attacked with sneezing, excessive secretion of tears, with swelling 

 of the puncta lacrymalia, and Huber also experienced a trouble- 

 some itching of the hands and neck after examining specimens 

 of A. lumbri.coides. In like manner I have myself had watery 

 suffusion of the eyes (when collecting the perivisceral fluid for 

 Marcet's analyses : see Bibliog.), and Bastian has given a detailed 

 account of the serious effects which the poison produced upon 

 him. In Bastian's case even spirit specimens produced irrita- 

 tion. The attacks of catarrh and asthma were so persistent 

 and severe that they lasted for six weeks at a time. So sensi- 

 tive was Bastian to the lumbricoid-miasm that he could not 

 even put on a coat that he had worn during his investigations 

 without experiencing fresh attacks of sneezing and other 

 catarrhal symptoms. The attacks became periodical, occurring 

 between five and six in the morning, being accompanied by 

 dyspnoea and a distressing spasmodic cough. Bastian, in short, 

 was quite a martyr in the cause of nematode anatomy. 



