82 KAMALA AS AN ANTHELMINTIC. 



less. "After three drachms of the powder have been administered 



Dr. Anderson, the worm is usually expelled in the third or fourth stool. It is 

 generally passed entire, and almost always dead, and in all the 

 cases I have examined (about 15), I was able to detect the head. 

 In only two cases do I know of the worm being passed alive. 

 The advantage of the tincture over the powder consists in its 

 action being more certain and milder, and in it being rarely 

 accompanied by nausea and griping. In two or three cases, only 

 two or three stools followed the dose usually given, and the 

 worm was expelled in the second stool ; in one patient, only one 

 stool was caused by the medicine, and in it the worm came away 

 dead." 



Dr. Anderson alludes to 95 cases of tapeworm in which 

 Kamala was prescribed, and of this number he was aware of 

 only two in which no worm was expelled. Of these 95 cases, 

 86 were European soldiers, 8 were Mussulman natives, and one 

 was a Hindu of the lowest class. All these persons were in the 

 habit of indulging freely and constantly in animal food, and 

 among this class tapeworm is common : those, on the other hand, 

 whose animal diet is less copious are less liable to taenia, while 

 among several native regiments, Hindu Sepoys and servants, 

 says Dr. Anderson, whose food is entirely vegetable, the parasite 

 is unknown. 



Dr. c. A. Dr. C. A. Gordon's experience of the efficacy of Kamala 

 corresponds entirely with that of Drs. Mackinnon and Anderson. 



He observes, 1 " With Kamala there is no unpleasant effect. 

 It is not even necessary to take a dose of purging medicine as a 

 preparative ; and beyond a trifling amount of nausea and griping 

 in some instances, no unpleasant effects are experienced ; while 

 by far the greater number of persons to whom it is administered 

 suffer no inconvenience whatever beyond what they would from 

 a dose of ordinary purging medicine." 



The observations of Dr. Gordon relative to the occurrence of 

 taenia are confirmatory of those of Dr. Anderson, and are to 

 the effect that the free use of animal food of very indifferent 

 quality among the British troops in the N. W. Provinces must 

 be regarded as the cause of the prevalence of the malady. In 

 1 Medical Times and Gazette, May 2, 1857, p. 429. 



