KOUNDWORMS. 113 



having been made in the absence of the above-men- 

 tioned evidence, and I have myself discovered the 

 eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides in vomited matters 

 where no suspicion of the presence of lumbrici 

 appears to have been entertained. 



Should circumstances carry you abroad you may 

 happen to take up your residence in localities 

 where the lumbricus occurs endemically, and in 

 such situations the presence of a single worm 

 only in the bearer is probably the exception rather 

 than the rule. The Mauritius is such a locality ; 

 and in the pages of the Medical Gazette for 1834 

 you will find an able paper by Professor Robert 

 Dyce, of Aberdeen, " on the causes of their preva- 

 lence in that island." Without particularizing the 

 various instances on record, I will only add that in 

 extreme cases from one to five hundred and upwards 

 of these large round worms, each from six to twelve 

 inches in length, have been found to infest a single 

 human bearer. 



Under ordinary circumstances the symptoms to 

 which lumbrici give rise resemble very closely those 

 produced by oxyurides. As I have elsewhere stated : 

 "In the stomach and intestines they give rise to 

 colic and shooting pains about the abdomen, fol- 

 lowed generally by dyspepsia, nasal itching, nausea, 

 vomiting, and even diarrhoea. Sometimes also there 

 is a considerable degree of cerebral disturbance, 

 attended with general restlessness and convulsive 



