SPURIOUS WORMS. 131 



recommendation of a suitable tonic, with ad- 

 vice as to diet, completed the case, which was 

 certainly that of a perfect cure under very peculiar 

 circumstances. 



CASE LXXII. H. M., a middle-aged unmarried 

 lady, from Oxfordshire, consulted me in the spring 

 of 1867. She believed herself to be the victim of 

 worms, and was quite sure that she passed great 

 numbers of them continually. None of the forms 

 she described appeared to me to answer to any 

 genuine species of entozoon ; but it will surprise no 

 one to learn that my repeated assurances to that 

 effect only excited astonishment, not so say con- 

 tempt. Here, again, to satisfy a deluded patient, 

 I prescribed santonin in combination with podo- 

 phyllin, each powder being followed by two-drachm 

 doses of the liquid extract of senna, and of course 

 I naturally insisted upon having an opportunity 

 afforded me of examining any entozoa which might 

 come away. Surely enough, at a subsequent 

 visit, the patient produced abundant examples 

 of the so-called parasites, and I was enabled to 

 explain to her that the worms in question were 

 characteristic specimens of strawberry seeds. In 

 this case, however, no symptoms of gratitude or 

 pleasure on the sufferer's part followed my an- 

 nouncement, the parasitic delusion immediately 

 assuming another shape. 



CASE LXXIII. C. D., an elderly unmarried lady, 



K2 



