MEDICAL TREATMENT OF HYDATID TUMOURS. 173 



post-mortem examination, and that even when the 

 administration of the mercury was pushed so far as 

 to produce salivation, the progress of the affection 

 did not appear to undergo any modification. 



The chloride of sodium has been recommended, 

 in consequence of the joint fact that sheep fed in 

 meadows which are impregnated with salt, are free 

 from hydatids, and that the same animals, although 

 they are affected with hydatids through their having 

 been kept in marshy places, may be cured by removal 

 into meadows where a certain proportion of salt can 

 be taken with their food. Laennec states that he 

 has used saline baths with much advantage in the 

 treatment of hydatids. Dr. Davaine observes, how- 

 ever, that as chloride of sodium naturally exists in 

 the liquid of hydatids in considerable quantity, it is 

 consequently not very probable that this salt can 

 occasion the death of the vesicular worms. If it 

 favour the cure, it does so doubtless by acting upon 

 the system of the patient, as perhaps it does upon 

 the constitution of sailors in protecting them from 

 hydatids ; but the absence of hydatids in sailors, 

 and in animals which graze in meadows which are 

 impregnated with common salt, may be due to 

 circumstances which prevent the transmission of 

 these entozoa. 



The iodide of potassium has been employed in 

 the treatment of hydatids, but its efficacy has not 

 been more fully proved than that of the chloride of 

 sodium. 



The use of the iodide of potassium internally 

 might be seconded by the inunction of iodine oint- 

 ment over the seat of the tumour. 



