TAPEWORMS. 25 



some preliminary steps may be advisable ; but long 

 fasting prior to their administration is, in my 

 judgment, a ee great mistake." The important thing 

 is to be sure that your pharmaceutical preparations 

 are the very best that can be made. Inferior 

 drugs will cause you much disappointment; and, 

 of course, some forms of the same drug are better 

 than others. For example, I would say " rarely 

 administer the powdered male-fern root if you can 

 get a properly made ethereal extract. The powder 

 is liable to lose its strength by long keeping, and 

 it is perhaps more easily adulterated than the ex- 

 tract. This rule applies to other anthelmintics also. 

 I have cured cases of tapeworm with the oil of 

 male-fern where the powdered root was of little 

 or no service/' Herein also lies some hindrance 

 to the employment of that really excellent drug 

 kousso, and perhaps also to some extent with the 

 powdered areca-nut. With this remedy I have had 

 some experience in private practice; and in hospital 

 cases treated by Dr. John Barclay it has been pre- 

 scribed with very remarkable success. I believe he 

 first introduced this particular remedy into British 

 practice. The large quantity of kousso required to 

 be swallowed is highly objectionable, especially in 

 the case of young children. Even the administra- 

 tion of decoctions, as in the instance of pome- 

 granate-root bark, is not without some similar 

 disadvantage as regards results. My own expe- 



