108 ENTOZOA FOUND IN MAN. 



running water situated in the neighbourhood of 

 human habitations, and it is through the agency of 

 the water that the ova, which are akeady developed, 

 are conveyed into the intestines ; the occurrence of 

 these worms may be consequently prevented by the 

 use of liquids prepared from fruits, or at a high 

 temperature, such as wine, cyder, beer, and tea, by 

 the proper cooking of the food, by the domestic em- 

 ployment of water which has been either filtered, or 

 obtained from fresh, running springs, and, finally, by 

 habits of cleanhness. 



It is probable that certain states of the system 

 favour the development of entozoa, just as they 

 would promote that of external parasites, and it is a 

 well-known fact that women and children are more 

 frequently affected with worms than males and adults 

 are. Entozoa do not spread amongst persons who 

 are protected from the conditions which are favour- 

 able to their propagation ; just for the same reason 

 that the itch^ or pediculi, never attack an individual 

 who keeps aloof from the contact of the parasites 

 which occasion these diseases. 



This remark does not, however, appear to be 

 applicable to the oxyuris, which is reproduced in the 

 intestine itself. Its presence, in some cases, seems 

 to be maintained by a peculiar diathesis, and 

 numerous cases have been recorded which show tliis. 

 Dr. Davaine mentions the case of a man, nearly 

 seventy years old, who, from the age of six years, 

 had been obhged to take purgatives very frequently, 

 in order to free himself from the constantly recurring 

 attacks of tliis entozoon. 



The curative treatment of intestinal entozoa 



