110 ENTOZOA FOUND IN MAN. 



With regard to the cestoid intestinal worms, con- 

 sidered separately, only a small number of remedies 

 are now employed ; with these remedies others more or 

 less active are sometimes combined, or the patient may 

 be subjected to some sj)ecial preparatory treatment. 



The medicines which are most used are the male 

 fern, pomegranate bark, and kousso. These have 

 been employed almost indifferently against the two 

 kinds of cestoid worms ; but the male fern appears to 

 have a more certain action upon the bothriocephalus 

 than upon the taenia solium. 



It is very important, after the administration of 

 the remedy, to make sure that the taenia or the 

 bothriocephalus has been entirely expelled. For- 

 merly, much value was properly attached to the 

 expulsion of the head of the taenia ; and as this 

 worm is usually solitary, the cure is certain in the 

 majority of cases, when the head has been discharged. 

 Its expulsion is not, perhaps, so necessary now as it 

 was formerly, because the remedies then in vogue 

 were generally purgatives which drove the worm 



the head was forcibly thrown backwards, and the mouth was 

 convulsively closed so that it was impossible to get it open ; 

 there was also tetanic rigidity of the limbs, the breathing 

 and pulse were scarcely perceptible, and there was total loss of 

 sensation. As no remedy could be administered either by the 

 mouth or ver anuni, and death appeared imminent, an injection 

 containing four grains of tartarised antimony was passed into 

 the median vein of the left arm. After an interval of half an 

 hour, eight lumbrici, rolled up into a ball, and all living, were 

 expelled by vomiting; the patient subsequently vomited seven 

 more worms, at various times. All of the phenomena, which 

 have been mentioned, speedily abated, and then disappeared, and 

 in four days afferwards the patient was restored to perfect 

 health. 



