ANNELIDA TERRICOLA. 



patient proves that he has only suffered from the suspicion 

 of being troubled with worms, while his malady has been all 

 the while of another and a different character. This discov- 

 ery is, however, very often delayed until all the articles of this 

 class, and many more, have been tried in vain, and until 

 mothers, nurses, doctors, and quacks have drugged the patient 

 to surfeiting with worm nostrums and vermifuges of every 

 variety. 



It has been judiciously stated, in the preceding paragraph, 

 that the action of all anthelmintics is "merely temporary" 

 even when they act at all. This is true so far as the worms 

 are concerned, when there happens to be any in the case ; but 

 the patient who has taken " an ounce of garlic swallowed 

 whole," or an equal quantity of "tin filings," and followed 

 these with a drachm of cowhage or a draught of " two ounces 

 of spirits of turpentine," will be slow to confess that their 

 action upon his stomach and bowels has been " merely tem- 

 porary," and is often condemned to find the results disas- 

 trously permanent; even when taking these worm medicines 

 has only proved, as it often does, to the satisfaction of the 

 physician, that there are no worms in the case, and that an- 

 thelmintics are uncalled for. 



The truth is, that no certain diagnosis of worms, other than 

 their appearance in the discharges, is worthy of confidence, 

 and hence, without this ocular proof, the use of anthelmintics 

 is of equivocal propriety. And even where the symptoms of 

 intestinal irritation lead to the suspicion of worms, to " re- 

 store the healthy action of the digestive organs" and correct 

 the morbid state which " promotes the generation of intestinal 

 worms," these are the true indications. It need scarcely be 

 said that the medicines arranged under this class are not those 

 best adapted to this purpose, but are correctly pointed out in 

 the last sentence of the preceding paragraph. 



It is only when the presence of worms is definitely ascer- 

 tained, that any of the specific anthelmintics, as they are here 

 called, are at all adapted to the case, and then only for merely 

 "temporary" purposes, and quickly followed by cathartics, 

 unless they possess this property in common with their spe- 

 cific virtue. The turpentine will be found to be the most 

 successful of any, especially in tape-worm and in ascarides, 

 in which latter case it should be used as an enema, as this 

 species only infest the rectum. 



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