130 LECTURES. 



in the region of the throat. At times she was 

 even tempted to think that this mysterious ento- 

 zoon might turn out to be that undesirable hel- 

 minth called in biblical phraseology " the worm 

 that dieth not." Having assured her that the 

 awful parasite to which she referred was quite 

 unknown to helminthologists, I nevertheless en- 

 couraged her to think that we should dislodge any 

 other species of worm which might happen to be 

 present. Accordingly, I prescribed an aperient, 

 containing at the same time three grains of san- 

 tonin to each dose. As luck would have it, the 

 medicine produced considerable nausea and sick- 

 ness, resulting in the passage by the mouth of a 

 number of fine filaments more or less resembling 

 minute worms. These threads were carefully col- 

 lected and brought to me in an envelope, and on 

 my submitting them to microscopic examination 

 they turned out to be portions of variously coloured 

 wool. Having explained to my patient that the 

 presence of these foreign substances, when lodged 

 in the neighbourhood of the fauces would suffi- 

 ciently account for the tickling and other disagree- 

 able sensations she complained of; and having also 

 further assured her that there were no other 

 parasites capable of producing her particular 

 symptoms, she expressed herself as being entirely 

 satisfied, her manner at the same time showing 

 that the mind was greatly relieved. The further 



