SANTONINE. 235 



a proper dose, and for adults, two to five grains 

 administered twice daily ; the remedy may be re- 

 peated every third or fourth day, for one or more 

 successive weeks, if necessary. It should be given 

 in some oily veliicle, and none will be found more 

 advantageous than castor oil. If, for any reason, 

 castor oil be unsuitable, the powdered santonine may 

 be given on a piece of bread and butter, or in honey, 

 some purgative, such as jalap, being ordered to be 

 taken about three hours afterwards. When the 

 ascaris oxyuris is the parasite with which the patient 

 is troubled, some of the drug may be combined with 

 an enema. 



I have, for some years past, employed santonine, 

 both in Hospital and private practice, in a consider- 

 able number of cases, from which I propose to give 

 a summary of fifty, in order to show the value of 

 that remedy. 



In twenty-eight of these cases the prevailing 

 entozoon was the ascaris oxyuris, in seventeen the 

 taenia sohum, and in five the ascaris lumbricoides. 

 Of the total number of patients nineteen were cured 

 after undergoing treatment for a duration of from 

 one to three weeks, fifteen were much reheved, nine 

 presented some improvement, and in the remaining 

 seven no permanent good result was obtained. 



The relative ef&cacy of the medicine varies ac- 

 cording to the species of parasite, the greatest degree 

 of benefit being procurable in the cases of round- 

 worm, next m tape-worm, and least in those of the 

 thread-worm ; this comparison only holds good, how- 

 ever, when the santonine is administered by the 

 mouth, for the cure effected by the use of enemata 



