106 ENTOZOA FOUND IN MAN. 



and sometimes sanguinolent mucus ; it is studded 

 with a multitude of small red spots which are due 

 both to the irritation and to the bites of the 

 oxyurides. 



Although these means will usually suffice to 

 prove the existence of oxyurides, it sometimes 

 happens that they escape detection ; in such cases 

 their presence may be ascertained by the repeated 

 administration of anthelmintics and purgatives, or 

 by the employment of cold enemata. 



Besides the general sympathetic compHcations, 

 such as convulsions, chorea, epilepsy, &c,, which may 

 occur in a patient affected with any species of intes- 

 tinal worms, oxyurides often produce local disorders 

 of the genito-urinary organs ; of these the most 

 frequent are involuntary seminal emissions, and 

 incontinence of urine ; both of these disorders are 

 due to reflex irritation. 



The circumstance of the habitat of the thread- 

 worms being in the inferior portion of the large 

 intestines sufficiently explains why they are never 

 expelled by vomiting, and also why they are not 

 found in those viscera which are sometimes erratically 

 invaded by lumbrici ; the oxyurides seldom reach so 

 high as the csecum, and more rarely still in that part 

 of the intestinal canal which is situated above the 

 csecum. 



They frequently, however, issue from the anus, 

 and are scattered about the perineum and the inner 

 side of the thighs ; in females, and especially in 

 young female children, they may penetrate into the 

 vulva and vagina. The oxyurides which have wan- 

 dered into these situations produce violent itching. 



