412 WORMS COME OFF SPONTANEOUSLY : [BOOK II. 



gut to expel the hardened materials, so will an en- 

 tire change in the mode of feeding him do more to- 

 wards effecting a cure than all the medicine we can 

 prescribe, and all that the most liberal hand would 

 bestow. Perhaps, it would be too much to expect 

 that generous treatment alone should effect a cure, 

 but we certainly have known worms voided after a 

 few days' casual good keep, and apprehend we may 

 attribute this coming away to the change or altera- 

 tion that was so effected in the state of the patient's 

 bowels. Hence the propriety of any change of his 

 usual diet, as well as the advantages of alterative 

 medicines generally. In the first place, try a run 

 at grass, or give green food in-doors, or succulent 

 and agreeable vegetables. If poor living has not 

 been the original cause, we may conclude some de- 

 fect in the abdominal viscera has caused obstruc- 

 tion, (see Index Adhesion) ; and the above change, 

 in diet, with plenty of water-gruel, bran mashes, 

 boiled potatoes, bruised corn, and the like, by lu- 

 bricating the parts, may detach the worm, or at 

 least assist the medici?ie, which ought to have the 

 same tendency. 



Cure, — Since the worms are not always to be 

 killed, even by strong poisons, nor brought away 

 by brisk purgatives, for a certainty, but are fre- 

 quently discharged in a few days by an alterative 

 regimen, reason dictates and nature beckons us to 

 follow her course, in affording to the horse which 

 cannot be spared from work, nor a run at grass be 

 obtained, to adopt the means nearest thereto that lie 



