ANNELIDA TERRICOLA. 



matters which are capable of irritating them. They therefore 

 seem to act either directly on the part to which they are ap- 

 plied, or indirectly through the medium of the circulation. 

 Annelida terricola have not been analyzed. Their constitu- 

 ents, as well as their effects and uses, are doubtless as yet not 

 well understood. They are principally employed in the treat- 

 ment of inflammations, either general or local, and in painful 

 ulcerations. Great advantage, however, has been obtained 

 by their use in obstinate cases of phlegmasia dolens and %- 

 darlhrus. Take a handful of earth-worms and stew them in 

 lard. With this mixture rub or bathe the legs or hips two or 

 three times a day. This may be repeated until relief is ob- 

 tained. 



There is no topic upon which the profession is so justly 

 chargeable with uncertainty and palpable error, as it is with 

 reference to the treatment of 'diseases attributed to worms in 

 the alimentary canal, by remedies denominated anthelmintics, 

 to which the specific property of destroying worms is ascribed. 

 It is well known that the existence of living worms in the 

 stomach and bowels is often found to be consistent with oth- 

 erwise sound health, and that they often spontaneously es- 

 cape from the body per os and per anum when no previous 

 evidence of their existence has been discernible, and when no 

 other disturbance of health can be detected. This is often 

 observed in school-boys who partake freely of unripe fruit; 

 and these worms are of the variety under consideration, and 

 they are often found in the bowels of persons who have been 

 killed when in high health. Still, however, this same kind of 

 worm is found in children and persons of bad general health, 

 and sometimes accumulating in such numbers as to become 

 a source of disease, and require remedies for their destruction 

 and removal. In most cases, however, even of this character, 

 the worms are often the effect of preexisting disease, and by 

 no means its primary cause, notwithstanding their presence 

 may now be the only apparent source of mischief. Especially 

 will it be found in children, that their digestive organs have 

 been impaired for a long time, and their health frail and 

 feeble, before any suspicion of worms could be gathered from 

 the symptoms. And in a multitude of examples, anthelmin- 

 tics, supposed to be specific in their action, are given for 

 weeks and months, when there is not only no proof of the 

 existence of worms, but when the ultimate history of the 



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