18 LECTURES. 



this case it became necessary to adopt active 

 remedial measures under circumstances of unusual 

 difficulty ; and the treatment succeeded in so far as 

 it enabled me to satisfy my own mind and the 

 patient's that he had been effectually cured by 

 the last course of remedies adopted prior to the 

 date of his asking my advice. 



The foregoing cases should, I think, be sufficient 

 to convince you that the knowledge necessary to 

 give a correct opinion in cases of parasitic disease, 

 is not so simple a matter as some would have you 

 suppose. The above constitute only a very small 

 proportion of the cases which have come under my 

 attention where entozoa were suspected when there 

 was no legitimate ground for such suspicions. On 

 the other hand, it may be safely averred that cases 

 of parasitic disease are not unfrequently overlooked 

 by those who have not deemed the subject of 

 sufficient importance to require their study. 



Putting aside for the present these general 

 truths, let us consider what are our resources in 

 cases of undoubted tapeworm. I shall take occa- 

 sion to enter more fully upon this subject in the 

 next lecture (p. 22) ; but in the meantime I may 

 remark that some practitioners seem to think that 

 one vermifuge is as good as another, and administer 

 all kinds indiscriminately. I suppose that the 

 principle they go upon is based upon the notion 

 that vermifuges in general act mechanically upon 



