ROUNDWORMS. 115 



parasitism, for without fully going into the particulars 

 of any given case, you might be led to encourage an 

 erroneous view strenuously urged by the deluded 

 patient. An estimable and amiable member of the 

 profession once consulted me in reference to the 

 presence of peculiar worms of this sort, which he 

 believed to be groping about beneath his skin in 

 every direction, and I have encountered other 

 equally curious experiences, some of which will be 

 brought forward presently. Probably the so-called 

 lumbricus is more frequently suspected to be present 

 when actually absent than any other kind of human 

 parasite, because when once a single worm has 

 come away, the patient or " bearer '* is alarmed by 

 its formidable proportions, and is therefore constantly 

 on the look out for more to follow. I have fre- 

 quently been called upon to advise in such cases, 

 but the favourable prognostications which I have 

 generally held out to the persons concerned have 

 not in all instances given satisfaction. A few 

 examples may be quoted in illustration. 



CASE LXVI. M.S. G., a gentleman under middle 

 age, one of H. B. M/s Consuls from the East, con- 

 sulted me in the spring of 1866. About two months 

 previously he had passed a small Ascaris lumbri- 

 coides, and he attributed the anomalous nervous 

 symptoms from which he was still suffering to the 

 presence of other lumbrici left behind. He assured 

 me that he was free from Oxyurides, and, so far as 



